Health Care Industry – Jobs. Trends. Insight.

Health Care Up 19,200 – September 2009 BLS Preliminary Report

By Juli Morris on October 2, 2009 in BLS Nonfarm Employment, Health Care.

According to today's preliminary report by the BLS, the health care sector gained 19,200 jobs in September. While still a positive report, this is the fourth consecutive month of declining gains. WANTED Technologies' Hiring Demand Indicator (the yellow line in the chart below) for Health Care also showed another slight decline in September.

Click chart to view full size

The Health Care Hiring Demand Indicator–a measure of year-over-year change in online job advertising–showed a slight decrease this month, but remains flat since the strong uptick last quarter from -27 percent in April to -17 percent in May. The trend in Hiring Demand in Health Care had been moving steadily downward from a peak it reached in June 2007 prior to the onset of the recession in December 2007, reaching a bottom which appeared to occur in the first quarter of 2009.

For more charts, graphs and forecasts, visit our BLS Forecast page.

Health Care Up 27,900 – August 2009 BLS Preliminary Report

By Juli Morris on September 4, 2009 in BLS Nonfarm Employment, Health Care.

According to today's preliminary report by the BLS, the health care sector gained 27,900 jobs in August. The sector remains one of the few bright spots in the labor market. WANTED Technologies' Hiring Demand Indicator (the yellow line in the chart below) for Health Care showed a slight decline in August.

Click chart to view full size

For more charts, graphs and forecasts, visit our BLS Forecast page.

FORECAST: August 2009 — Health Care Up 31,900

By Juli Morris on August 25, 2009 in BLS Nonfarm Employment, Health Care.

WANTED's forecast for Health Care employment in August shows a gain of 31,900 jobs, the largest monthly gain since December 2008. WANTED Technologies' Hiring Demand Indicator (the yellow line in the chart below) for Health Care showed no increase in August.

Click chart to view full size

The Health Care Hiring Demand Indicator–a measure of year-over-year change in online job advertising–dropped slightly this month, after a small uptick from -17 percent in June to -14 percent in July. The trend in Hiring Demand in Health Care had been moving steadily downward from a peak it reached in June 2007 prior to the onset of the recession in December 2007, reaching a bottom which appeared to occur in the first quarter of the year.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its Preliminary August Estimate for the Health Care sector as part of its Employment Situation report on Friday, September 4th, at 8:30 AM.

For more charts, graphs and forecasts, visit our BLS Forecast page.

Health Care Up 19,600 – July 2009 BLS Preliminary Report

By Juli Morris on August 7, 2009 in BLS Nonfarm Employment, Health Care.

The health care industry continues to add jobs, according to today's preliminary BLS report, although still at a relatively modest rate compared to growth rates in recent years. According to the BLS' Employment Situation, the health care sector gained 19,600 jobs in July. WANTED Technologies' Hiring Demand Indicator (the yellow line in the chart below) for Health Care showed a slight increase in July.

Click chart to view full size

The Health Care Hiring Demand Indicator–a measure of year-over-year change in online job advertising–increased slightly this month after remaining flat in June. Last quarter saw a strong uptick from -27 percent in April to -17 percent in May. The trend in Hiring Demand in Health Care had been moving steadily downward from a peak it reached in June 2007 prior to the onset of the recession in December 2007, reaching a bottom which appeared to occur in the first quarter of the year.

For more charts, graphs and forecasts, visit our BLS Forecast page.

Forecast July 2009 – Health Care up 28,600

By Charles Thibault on July 28, 2009 in BLS Nonfarm Employment, Health Care.

Based on slightly improving Hiring Demand for Health Care workers, WANTED forecasts an employment increase of 28,600 in the Health Care sector for July (BLS data series CES6562000101). The BLS will release industry-level employment figures on Friday, August 7th along with the Employment Situation.

Despite weakening Hiring Demand throughout 2009, the Health Care industry has remained fairly robust, adding an average 26,000 workers per month over the last year.

The year-over-year change in Hiring Demand for Health Care is now -14.4%, a relative improvement of 2.35% compared to last month. The BLS reported an increase in Health Care employment of 20,800 in June. Recent improvements in Hiring Demand in this industry are driving our forecast of 28,600.

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Fortune 1000 Hiring Demand Remains Flat

By Charles Thibault on July 20, 2009 in Fortune 1000.

Hiring Demand by Fortune 1000 companies remained consistent with the prior month, according to data from WANTED's Fortune 1000 report. WANTED's report measures new job ads for America's largest corporations. A month ago, the Fortune 1000 showed a year-over-year drop of 24.6% in Hiring Demand.

247 of the 1000 largest US corporations showed improvements in Hiring Demand, unchanged since last month.

On a Sector basis:

- Hiring Demand of "Wholesale Trade" companies (NAICS 42) is up by thirty-seven percentage points, posting a 24% year-over-year increase compared to last month's year-over-year drop of 13.2%.

- Health Care is the only sector to show consistent and robust growth in Hiring Demand. Health Care sector Hiring Demand is up 26.8% compared to last year. Last month, Hiring Demand was up 34.6% on a year-over-year basis.

- Hiring Demand of "Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services" companies (NAICS 54) dropped by twenty percentage points, going from -13.2% to -33.9% on a year-over-year basis.

The following table summarizes the sector highlights:

Source: WANTED Fortune 1000 Report

Hiring Demand for Nurses Drops

By Juli Morris on July 17, 2009 in Health Care.

Source: WANTED Analytics 2.0

After rebounding in late April and rising through May, Hiring Demand for Nurses has been trending downward again. As the accompanying chart shows, online job ads for Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses and Licensed Vocational Nurses have lost nearly all the gains made in 2009.

Demand for nurses reached its 2009 peak the week of May 31, having gained 13 percent from its low the week of April 19. As of the week of July 5th, Hiring Demand had retreated 8.4 percent from that 2009 peak.

WANTED's Hiring Demand Indicator^TM for the broader health care sector for June was down 17 percent year-over-year, up from a three-year low of 27.5 percent in January 2009. Additional information and analysis on Hiring demand in the health care industry can be found here.

The recently-launched WANTED Supply/Demand Ratios™ measure occupational Hiring Demand in a metro area relative to the size of the local labor market. Cities where the mix of demand and supply exceed the national average are good bets for people looking for work. Our S/D Ratios indicate that the five best locations for Registered Nurses looking for jobs are Las Vegas-Paradise, NV; Cheyenne, WY; Clarksville, TN; Redding, CA; and Austin-Round Rock, TX. For Licensed Practical Nurses and Occupational Nurses, the best locations are Salinas, CA; Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, NC; Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR; Colorado Springs, CO; and Durham, NC.

June '09 Hiring Demand Outlook: Slippage, but Poised for Upward Trending

By Charles Thibault on July 8, 2009 in Hiring Demand Indicators.

Last month we reported that National Hiring Demand was improving in relative terms – year-over-year percent changes improved from -32.6% in April 2009 to -28.4% in May of 2009. Hiring Demand has slipped slightly since last month, with year-over-year percentage changes moving from -27.2% in May to -30.1% in June. (Slight revisions to data cause minor variations in Hiring Demand percent changes when compared to previously published results).

This month's slippage is particularly due to a robust month of May – on a seasonally adjusted basis May's Hiring Demand was up 10% compared to April. Because of May's increase in Hiring Demand, in combination with improving month-over-month declines in Nonfarm Payroll Employment (the revised drop for May was -322,000, whereas April's final number was -519,000), WANTED had forecast an optimistic drop of 260,000 in Nonfarm Payroll Employment. Despite the slight slippage this month, Hiring Demand has moved from "being flat" to starting to show signs of a possible uptrend.

The two time-series charts of new online job ads, one weekly series and one monthly series, show that since the drop off in December, Hiring Demand has been slowly inching up. (Usually the series "bounces back" in January, but, given the recession, new job ads did not come back to the previous calendar year's level.) This corresponds to slightly improving UI claims data and slowing in the month-over-month drops in US Employment.

Source: WANTED Analytics 2.0

S&P 500 Healthcare (XLV) – Inflection Point too Soon?

By Charles Thibault on July 6, 2009 in Health Care - XLV.

Since reporting an uptick in Hiring Demand by the Health Care sector of the S&P 500, year-over-year returns in the S&P 500 Health Care Index (NYSE:XLV) have improved in relative terms, even as Hiring Demand continues its overall downward trend.

On June 19th, 2009, the yearly return on the health care sector Index was -16.7%. This week (June 30), the Index is down only 13.6% compared to the same date last year, the best performance since October 11, 2008. Since March 5th, the S&P 500 Health Care Index is up 22%.

Source: WANTED Analytics

Hiring Demand has slipped after the spike experienced in mid-May. Year-over-year changes in Hiring Demand (based on the 4-week rolling summation of Unique New Ads) reached a peak of -19.7% on May 15, 2009. However, it slipped back down to -50.0% two weeks ago, and -45.4% last week. Despite improvement in the Index, overall Hiring Demand is still trending downward.

Health Care Up 20,800 – June 2009 BLS Preliminary Report

By Juli Morris on July 2, 2009 in BLS Nonfarm Employment, Health Care.

Today's preliminary BLS report indicates that the health care industry continues to add jobs, although at a relatively modest rate compared to growth rates in recent years. According to the BLS' Employment Situation, the health care sector gained 20,800 jobs in June. WANTED Technologies' Hiring Demand Indicator (the yellow line in the chart below) for Health Care showed no increase in June.

Click chart to view full size

The Health Care Hiring Demand Indicator–a measure of year-over-year change in online job advertising–is flat this month, after a strong uptick from -27 percent in April to -17 percent in May. The trend in Hiring Demand in Health Care had been moving steadily downward from a peak it reached in June 2007 prior to the onset of the recession in December 2007, reaching a bottom which appeared to occur in the first quarter of the year.

For more charts, graphs and forecasts, visit our BLS Forecast page.

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