Healthcare Hiring Demand Snapshot: Fall 2026
A live read on who healthcare organizations are trying to hire, computed from the searches on our desk today.
Most hiring reports are a year old by the time they are published. This one is not a survey. It is a live count of the permanent clinical searches MedStaff Nationwide is running for hospitals, health systems, medical groups, and community health centers, recomputed every hour. Use it to see where demand is concentrated, which specialties are competing for the same candidates, and what employers are posting for compensation.
- Physician searches
- 306
- Posted $140k–$650k
- Nurse practitioner searches
- 142
- Posted $97k–$300k
- Roles at community health centers
- 27%
- FQHC, look-alike, or rural health clinic
- Roles offering loan repayment
- 37%
- NHSC, state, or employer program
Demand by profession
Nurse practitioners and physicians dominate the desk, which matches what health systems tell us: the primary care and behavioral health capacity gap is being filled with advanced practice providers wherever scope of practice allows it, while physician searches skew toward psychiatry, hospital medicine, and the subspecialties that never draw applicants.
| Item | Share | Searches | Posted range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physicians | 306 | $140k–$650k | |
| Nurse practitioners | 142 | $97k–$300k | |
| Therapists and psychologists | 26 | $50k–$115k | |
| Registered nurses | 21 | $67k–$135k | |
| Dental | 19 | $60k–$250k | |
| Physician assistants | 8 | $101k–$155k | |
| CRNAs | 1 | $250k–$300k |
The specialties with the most open searches
Family medicine physicians, Family nurse practitioners, and Nurse practitioners lead the list. Each row links to the live openings behind it.
| Item | Share | Searches | Posted range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Family Medicine Physicians | 136 | $160k–$450k | |
| Family Nurse Practitioners | 52 | $97k–$173k | |
| Nurse Practitioners | 52 | $100k–$215k | |
| Psychiatrists | 41 | $230k–$500k | |
| Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners | 34 | $114k–$258k | |
| Therapists | 27 | $50k–$115k | |
| Cardiologists | 24 | $300k–$700k | |
| Registered Nurses | 20 | $67k–$135k | |
| OB/GYN Physicians | 19 | $140k–$490k | |
| Internal Medicine Physicians | 14 | $175k–$355k | |
| Dental Hygienists | 11 | $60k–$130k | |
| Physician Assistants | 8 | $101k–$155k |
- Family Medicine Physicians: 136 open searches, posted $160k–$450k
- Family Nurse Practitioners: 52 open searches, posted $97k–$173k
- Nurse Practitioners: 52 open searches, posted $100k–$215k
- Psychiatrists: 41 open searches, posted $230k–$500k
- Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners: 34 open searches, posted $114k–$258k
- Therapists: 27 open searches, posted $50k–$115k
Where the searches are
Indiana, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts carry the most open searches. Rural and underserved markets are over-represented relative to population, because those are the roles that stay open longest and reach an outside firm.
| Item | Share | Searches | Posted range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indiana | 114 | $114k–$320k | |
| New York | 73 | $89k–$500k | |
| Connecticut | 47 | $68k–$320k | |
| Massachusetts | 41 | $65k–$350k | |
| California | 39 | $90k–$332k | |
| Oregon | 21 | $88k–$405k | |
| Ohio | 18 | $50k–$240k | |
| Washington | 17 | $120k–$370k | |
| Pennsylvania | 16 | $68k–$300k | |
| New Jersey | 15 | $165k–$320k | |
| Illinois | 12 | $160k–$600k | |
| New Hampshire | 9 | $125k–$310k |
Setting and structure
Outpatient roles outnumber inpatient roles 384 to 116. 1 percent of searches are remote or hybrid, almost all of them telepsychiatry. 64 percent of searches carry a posted compensation range, which is high for the industry and reflects a shift toward pay transparency in clinical job postings.
| Item | Share | Searches |
|---|---|---|
| Outpatient | 384 | |
| Inpatient | 116 | |
| Not specified | 20 | |
| Emergency | 11 |
What this means if you are hiring
- If your open role is in one of the top specialties above, you are competing with dozens of other employers for the same candidates. Speed of feedback and clarity of the offer decide it.
- Community health centers are a large share of the market. NHSC and state loan repayment is the recruiting tool that separates them from a hospital offering a higher base.
- Nurse practitioner demand is broad enough that opening a search to both NPs and PAs usually doubles the pool without lowering the bar.
- Posted compensation is now the norm. A search without a range gets fewer qualified responses and longer time-to-fill.
This snapshot refreshes every hour from live data. For a specialty or state not shown, the state hubs and specialty pages list every current search.
Frequently asked questions
- Where does this hiring data come from?
- Every figure is computed from the permanent clinical searches MedStaff Nationwide is running for hospitals, health systems, medical groups, and community health centers at the moment the page is rendered. It is first-party demand data, not a survey, and it refreshes hourly.
- Which clinicians are in highest demand right now?
- As of this snapshot, the largest search volumes are for family medicine physicians, family nurse practitioners, and nurse practitioners. Nurse practitioners and physicians together account for the majority of active searches.
- Are the salary ranges real offers?
- They are the compensation ranges employers have attached to their open searches, shown as the low and high across all openings in a group. Actual offers vary by experience, setting, and market. For accepted-offer data see the MedStaff Nationwide Offer Report.