Hiring of Health Care Support Workers Picking Up

Although many employers are still having trouble filling open positions, the health care industry added more than 18,000 jobs in January, including those in environmental services (EVS), according to the January Jobs Report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The hiring rise in the health care sector is a pleasant surprise, but there is still a long way to go before the industry returns to pre-COVID-19 employment levels, Infection Control Today reports. Jobs in the health care industry are down by 378,000, or 2.3%, from their level in February 2020, according to the BLS. Nursing homes have been it particularly hard with frequent employee turnover.

Overall, the economy added about 467,000 jobs in January. Most economists had predicted the U.S. would add about 150,000 jobs.