The health care industry continues its hiring streak with tens of thousands of new jobs, lifting the overall March employment numbers in the American economy as unemployment rate remained at 9.7%, the Labor Department reported Friday. Out of the 162,000 jobs generated last month, the health care industry accounted for 27,000 positions, with the largest gains coming in ambulatory health care services (16,000) and in nursing and residential care facilities (9,000), the report said. The numbers were in line with government expectations, which predicted that the jobless rate will average 9.8% next year, and will ease to 8.4% in 2012 before hitting 5% in 2016, to match pre-recession employment rates. Economists, while still wary of current market scenarios, believe the economy has reached a "turning point and will begin adding jobs at a slow, but steady, pace," The New York Times reported. Despite uncertainties in the labor market, the health care sector will grow faster than any other industries as it churns out more than 3.2 million new jobs through 2018, largely in response to booming elderly population, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said.  |