The Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly report wasn't great for most people, but it was okay in our business.
While BLS reported a gain of only 163,000 jobs nationwide in July, and an "essentially unchanged" unemployment rate from 8.2% to 8.3%, health care employment increased by 12,000 jobs.
That's not a great number -- in May the sector was up 33,000 jobs -- but better, as our mother used to say, than nothing, and also better than June, when the whole sector gained only 13,000 jobs and physicians practices actually lost 3,400 jobs.
Looking at the details, ambulatory health case services were the big gainer with 8,900 jobs, followed by hospitals (5,300), outpatient care centers (4,100), physicians practices (2,700), and home health (1,800).
Things were less upbeat for nursing and residential facilities, which dropped 2,200 jobs (though if you just count the nursing homes, it's more or less flat).