July's overall payrolls grew at a healthy pace, in line with expectations, and several industries showed particularly strong growth in hiring including education, health care, professional and business services.
The Labor Department reported Friday that payrolls increased 164,000 during the month, just 1,000 below the 165,000 Dow Jones forecast. The government said wages also continued to increase, with the 3.2% year-over-year gain slightly beating expectations.
CNBC studied the net changes by industry for July jobs based on data from the Labor Department contained in the employment report.
Jobs in the health-care and education sector — a consistent employment juggernaut — increased the most in July with a net gain of 66,000 payrolls. Health care and social services, including ambulatory outpatient care, hospitals and nursing and resident facilities added 50,400 jobs.
"Employment in health care rose by 30,000 over the month, reflecting a gain in ambulatory health care services (+29,000). Health care employment has increased by 405,000 over the year, with ambulatory health care services accounting for about two-thirds of the gain," the Labor Department said in a release.
The business and professional services sector clinched the No. 2 spot, adding 38,000 jobs with strong hiring in computer systems design, management and technical consulting services. The sector also includes lawyers, accountants and consultants.
Financial activities, manufacturing and government sectors also had solid job gains in July.
The information category, however, had the biggest payrolls loss last month with a net change of -10,000 jobs. Within the information sector, motion picture and sound recording as well as telecommunications suffered big jobs losses.