The April count compares to 43,000 healthcare jobs lost in March.
Within ambulatory healthcare services, April job losses included offices of dentists (503,300), offices of physicians (243,300), and offices of other healthcare practitioners (205,100).
Hospitals lost 134,900 jobs last month, compared to the 200 positions they added to the U.S. economy in March.
The April jobs report marks the second consecutive month that healthcare employment did not grow. In the 12 months prior to March — the month the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 spread a pandemic — industry employment had grown by 374,000, according to the bureau.
Bloomberg reported the number of healthcare workers has doubled to 16 million in the last three decades, and until March, the industry has lost jobs in only four months during that period.
Overall, the U.S. lost 20.5 million jobs in April, and the unemployment rate reached 14.7 percent, the highest since the Great Depression, according to the bureau.
The unemployment rate does not reflect Americans still working who have had their hours or pay reduced, The New York Times noted.
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