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Physician postings are within 1% of their record high. Nursing postings fell 42% from their peak. What the two-speed healthcare market means for a physician society's career center, and the comparison to make this quarter.
Physician postings are within 1% of their record high. Nursing postings fell 42% from their peak.
For three years, the healthcare hiring story has been about nursing: the shortage, the surge in postings, and the long cooling that followed. Physician hiring is a different market, and it has been running near its high the whole time.
Physician and surgeon postings in September were 94% above their level in February 2020, the month before the pandemic, and within 1% of their record, set in September 2023. Nursing postings were 8% above their February 2020 level, having fallen 42% from their January 2022 peak before turning up this summer. Medical technician postings were 21% above the pre-pandemic level, dental 18% above and medical information 12% below. The overall market was 3% above where it started.
The year-over-year picture splits the same way. Physician postings are up 4% on September 2025. Nursing is down 6%, medical technicians down 7%, medical information down 7% and dental down 14%. Therapy is up 1% and pharmacy up 2.5%. All US postings are up 0.4%. One healthcare average would show a market in mild decline. It would misstate both.
Physician postings held near their high while nursing and the overall market fell. Shown as percent above or below the February 2020 level. Source: Indeed Hiring Lab Job Postings Index, US, seasonally adjusted; analysis by Web Scribble.
The overall market fell 37% from its May 2022 peak to June 2026. Nursing fell 42% over almost the same stretch. Physician postings fell 8%, from their September 2023 high to June 2026, the largest decline in the series. They have been at least 70% above their pre-pandemic level in every month since February 2022, 56 months in a row.
The annual averages show the same pattern. Physician postings averaged 79% to 88% above their pre-pandemic level in every year from 2022 through 2025. All US postings slid from 55% above in 2022 to 5% above in 2025. For a physician career center, the three-year decline that hit most association job boards was not a physician-demand event.
The year to date is softer. January through September 2026 ran 2% below the same months of 2025, because the first half of this year was the low point of that 8% decline. September reversed it with a 6% rise in a single month, the largest since 2021.
Physician postings have averaged at least 79% above their pre-pandemic level every year since 2022. Annual averages, as percent above the February 2020 level; 2026 is January to September. Source: Indeed Hiring Lab; analysis by Web Scribble.
Nursing postings fell 42% from their peak and sit 8% above February 2020. They have risen three months in a row since June, up 6% from the low. Medical technician postings have followed the same path. Dental and medical information postings have not turned yet. This is the end of the 2021 and 2022 surge working its way out, not a collapse in clinical hiring. But it is a weak market for a career center that sells mainly to nursing and allied health employers, and it has been weak for three years.
Only physician postings are clearly up year over year. Source: Indeed Hiring Lab, September 2026 vs September 2025; analysis by Web Scribble.
The market behind those postings is a large one. About 862,800 people worked as physicians and surgeons in the United States in 2025. The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects about 22,100 openings a year through 2035, most of them to replace physicians who retire or change roles. Health systems, physician groups and academic medical centers hire into that market, and they hire continuously.
Here is one example of what that demand looks like at the employer level. We track open roles at some large health systems and physician groups. In October 2026, Baylor Scott & White Health alone listed about 2,200 open physician roles. Ascension listed about 1,000. Vituity had about 490, Geisinger about 440, Mayo Clinic about 240 and Henry Ford Health about 230. Corewell Health and Sentara each had about 190. That counts physician and surgeon roles only. These are examples, not a measure of the market. Most of the largest health systems in the country are not on that list at all.
Two things are worth knowing about those counts. They are a snapshot of open roles on one day, not a trend. And they are examples, so the market total is many times larger.
862,800 people work as physicians and surgeons in the US, and large health systems are hiring now. Open physician and surgeon roles at ten large employers, October 2026; examples, not a measure of the market. Workforce size: BLS, 2025.
A career center sells into a hiring market it does not control. For most association job boards, the last three years were a demand story: postings fell by a third, and job board revenue fell with them. Physician postings did not follow that pattern. So a physician society cannot read a flat or declining job board as a market problem. In our experience, physician employers keep recruiting through every cycle, and they post wherever their recruiters already are. A job board that did not grow with a market this steady has a penetration problem: the employers are hiring, and they are posting somewhere else. That is a sales problem, and sales problems respond to effort. The place to start is the gap between your physician-employer revenue and a market that stayed within 8% of its high.
A hospital association is selling into both markets at once. Its employers hire far more nurses and technicians than physicians, so its job board felt the nursing cooling in full. Physician demand at the same employers held steady. That argues for two employer conversations, not one. Physician recruiting is steady, high-value and continuous, and it belongs in the job board's core employer sales plan now. Nursing recruiting is only beginning to turn, and the association should be ready for it rather than wait for it to show up in revenue.
The index counts job postings on Indeed, not hires and not revenue. Every figure is relative to February 2020, the month before the pandemic, so "94% above" describes the level of postings, not a count of jobs or hires. Physician postings are a small share of all healthcare postings, which is why a single healthcare average hides them. Our employer count fills the other gap: who is hiring physicians, and how many roles. Neither source changes the picture of the last four years. In our experience, postings move first, hires follow, and job board revenue follows hires. In physician hiring, postings have been high the whole time.
First, put your job board's physician-employer revenue for 2023 through 2026 next to the market's. The market held within 8% of its high. If your job board did not, that gap is the agenda for your next partner review. Second, if you serve hospitals, split your employer revenue by physician and nursing postings and read each against its own market. The two will tell you different things. Third, plan 2027 employer sales against a market that is at its high, not against last year's job board. A physician job board that grew 3% in a market this full left most of the opportunity on the table.
Physician demand has been steady for four years. The question for a physician society is whether its career center has been selling into it.
Want your job board's physician-employer number next to the market's? Talk with our team.
Source: Indeed Hiring Lab Job Postings Index, US, seasonally adjusted, 7-day trailing average, indexed to Feb 1 2020 = 100. Monthly averages through September 2026, the most recent complete month; retrieved October 22, 2026. Year over year compares September 2026 with September 2025. Physician postings are the Physicians & Surgeons sector. Nursing, Medical Technician, Therapy, Pharmacy, Dental and Medical Information are shown as single sectors. The index measures job postings on Indeed, not hires. github.com/hiring-lab/job_postings_tracker.
Employer openings: Web Scribble's own count of open physician and surgeon roles at large health systems and physician groups it tracks, October 2026. The list is a set of examples, not a sample of the market; most of the largest health systems are not on it. A one-day count, not a trend. Physician workforce: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Physicians and Surgeons, 2025 employment and 2025 to 2035 projections, read October 22, 2026.
