Nursing care facilities added 5,400 jobs in February on a month-over-month basis.
That’s according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report issued March 10, which showed a slight uptick in the overall U.S. unemployment rate, which rose from 3.4% in January to 3.6% in February.
“Today’s report shows the labor market remains strong with the economy still creating jobs at a rapid, albeit, slowing pace,” Beth Mace, chief economist at the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC), wrote in Friday blog post. “That said, the slight rise in the jobless rate and a slowing in average hourly earnings suggest a potential adjustment in the labor markets is starting to occur.”
Employment in nursing facilities was up by 43,500 jobs compared to this time last year, the BLS report showed, with a total of about 1.39 million positions.
The labor force participation rate for February was 62.5%, which was slightly higher than the 62.4% in January and the highest participation rate since March 2020, Mace pointed out in her blog post.
Even a slight easing in the labor market would be welcomed by nursing care operators that have been grappling with a severe workforce crunch.
Last week, the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) highlighted how the staffing crisis is affecting veterans’ homes and county-run facilities, among other types of nursing care centers.
For instance, AHCA cited reporting on the Delaware Veterans Home, which showed that the facility could be serving more than its current 58 residents if it could fill 76 open nursing positions. The veterans’ facility in Port St. Lucie, Florida, was another example flagged by AHCA. That facility has 120 beds but only 19 residents, due to staffing shortages.
With regard to the latest BLS jobs report, Mace does not believe it is likely to change the path of the Federal Reserve, with regard to interest rate hikes.
“All eyes will now be focused on the CPI report to be released next week as the market tries to determine how much higher the Fed will push interest rates,” she wrote.
Difficulties in purchasing and recapitalizing nursing care properties are the biggest impacts of the rising interest rate environment, according to results from the latest NIC Executive Survey, also released Friday. Fewer respondents cited difficulties in selling properties.
“Across all care segments, just under one in ten operators (8%) indicate that their abilities to purchase, sell, and recapitalize properties have all been impacted by the rising interest rate environment,” NIC Senior Principal Ryan Brooks wrote, in a blog post on the survey findings.
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