Healthcare Hiring Remains Strong Across the U.S. Healthcare Sector

Major Health Systems Continue Recruiting

Large healthcare systems remain active participants in the U.S. healthcare labor market.

On September 22, Cleveland Clinic posted 335 new job openings, with positions available across hospitals and clinics in Ohio, Florida and other locations.

The openings covered a wide range of healthcare occupations.

Among the positions advertised were registered nurses working in medical-surgical units, emergency departments, intensive care and other specialized clinical areas. In addition to direct hospital staff, healthcare networks consistently leverage credentialed Registered Nurses (RN) / Travel Nursing to bridge regional staffing deficits and maintain optimal patient-to-nurse ratios during seasonal census fluctuations.

Cleveland Clinic was also recruiting:

• Respiratory therapists
• Clinical technicians
• Phlebotomists
• Medical assistants
• Administrative professionals
• New graduate nurses
• Specialized clinical staff

The range of positions demonstrates that healthcare hiring extends across multiple levels of clinical responsibility.

Organizations need both highly trained professionals and support staff to operate hospitals, outpatient facilities and specialty services.

Select Medical Continues Nationwide Hiring

Select Medical posted 428 new openings nationwide on September 22, providing another example of broad healthcare recruitment activity.

The positions included:

• Registered nurses
• Physical therapists
• Occupational therapists
• Speech-language pathologists
• Certified nursing assistants
• Pharmacy technicians
• Patient-service professionals

Some of the advertised positions included sign-on bonuses of up to $20,000.

Select Medical operates across multiple healthcare settings, including rehabilitation and specialty care, which helps illustrate the breadth of hiring outside traditional acute-care hospitals.

The demand for physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists also demonstrates the continued importance of rehabilitation services within the U.S. healthcare system.

Healthcare Hiring Extends Beyond Nursing

Registered nursing remains one of the largest healthcare employment categories, but current hiring activity shows that the workforce demand is considerably broader.

Hospitals and healthcare providers require professionals who support diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, patient monitoring and administrative operations.

Allied health professionals play a particularly important role.

Respiratory therapists, laboratory professionals, imaging specialists, rehabilitation clinicians and pharmacy staff provide services that are essential to modern healthcare delivery.

When these positions remain vacant, healthcare organizations may face difficulties maintaining service capacity even when they have sufficient Physicians / MD-DO and nurses.

Advanced Practice Providers Remain Important

Healthcare organizations are also continuing to expand the use of advanced practice providers (APPs).

Dedicated providers such as certified Nurse Practitioners (NP) and physician assistants can support physicians, expand access to care and provide services in a variety of clinical settings, depending on state regulations and organizational practice models.

The use of APPs has become an important part of workforce planning as healthcare organizations attempt to increase patient access while managing physician workforce constraints.

APP recruitment can also help organizations support outpatient services, specialty clinics and other care settings where demand for medical services continues to increase.

Experienced Healthcare Workers Remain in Demand

The number of job openings does not tell the entire story of the current healthcare labor market.

Employers are also looking for candidates with the right combination of experience, credentials, certifications and specialized clinical skills.

Healthcare practitioner and technical occupations remain among the groups where employers report difficulty filling available positions.

This can be especially challenging in specialized areas such as nursing, behavioral health, rehabilitation, imaging and other clinical disciplines.

A healthcare organization may receive applications for an open position while still having difficulty finding candidates who meet all of the requirements for the role.

Experience Can Be More Difficult to Find Than Entry-Level Talent

The distinction between recruiting new professionals and experienced professionals has become increasingly important.

Healthcare organizations can sometimes recruit newly trained workers through graduate programs, internships and structured onboarding.

Finding professionals who already have several years of experience in a particular specialty can be more difficult.

Experienced workers may already have established employment relationships, specialized skills and geographic preferences.

As a result, healthcare employers increasingly compete not only for workers but for professionals with specific clinical backgrounds.

New-Grad Programs Help Build the Future Workforce

One response to the experience shortage is greater investment in new-graduate recruitment.

Large healthcare systems continue to offer programs designed to transition newly licensed nurses and other healthcare professionals into clinical practice.

These programs can provide structured training, mentoring and supervised experience.

For employers, new-graduate programs create a pipeline of potential long-term employees.

For healthcare professionals entering the workforce, they can provide an alternative pathway to gaining specialty experience.

However, training new employees requires time and resources, which means organizations must balance early-career recruitment with the need to hire experienced professionals who can fill immediate workforce gaps.

Retention Becomes a Central Workforce Strategy

Healthcare organizations are increasingly treating retention as an important component of workforce planning.

The American Hospital Association's 2026 Health Care Workforce Scan identifies persistent shortages, employee turnover and an aging workforce among the major challenges facing healthcare organizations.

These issues make retention especially important.

When an experienced nurse, therapist, technician or other healthcare professional leaves, the employer loses not only an employee but also clinical knowledge and experience.

Replacing that employee can require recruiting, onboarding and training a new worker.

For this reason, healthcare organizations are increasingly investing in strategies designed to keep experienced employees within the workforce.

Career Development and Internal Mobility

One approach involves expanding career pathways.

Healthcare organizations can provide employees with opportunities to move into specialized clinical roles, leadership positions or advanced practice careers.

Career development can help employees build new skills while creating an internal pipeline for hard-to-fill positions.

For example, an organization may support an employee's transition from a general nursing position into a specialty unit or leadership role.

Internal mobility can reduce dependence on external recruitment while giving existing employees additional professional opportunities.

Apprenticeship and Training Programs Expand

Healthcare employers are also using apprenticeship and training programs to develop their own workforce.

These programs can help organizations address shortages in positions where qualified candidates are limited.

Training existing workers can sometimes be more effective than relying exclusively on external recruitment, particularly in competitive labor markets.

The approach also allows employers to develop workers with skills that are specifically aligned with their operational needs.

Team-Based Care Is Becoming More Important

Another workforce strategy involves expanding team-based models of care.

Instead of relying on one category of professional to handle a broad range of responsibilities, healthcare organizations can distribute tasks among multidisciplinary teams composed of Physicians / MD-DO, APPs, nurses, technicians and other healthcare professionals.

Team-based care can allow organizations to use different categories of workers according to their training and scope of practice.

This approach can also help healthcare systems manage staffing shortages while maintaining patient services.

New Healthcare Jobs Are Emerging

Healthcare workforce growth is not limited to traditional clinical positions.

The American Hospital Association has identified growing workforce needs in areas including:

• Digital health and informatics
• Virtual care management
• Healthcare cybersecurity
• Care coordination and patient navigation
• Artificial intelligence-related healthcare operations

The expansion of digital healthcare creates demand for professionals who understand both healthcare operations and technology.

As healthcare organizations increasingly rely on electronic systems, remote care platforms and data-driven tools, technical and operational skills are becoming more relevant to healthcare workforce planning.

Artificial Intelligence Creates New Workforce Needs

Artificial intelligence is also beginning to influence healthcare employment.

AI tools can support areas such as administrative workflows, documentation, data analysis, scheduling and clinical decision support.

However, implementing these technologies requires employees who can manage systems, evaluate outputs and integrate new tools into existing healthcare processes.

This means AI may create new workforce requirements even as organizations attempt to automate certain administrative tasks.

The long-term effect will vary by occupation and technology, but healthcare organizations are already considering technology-related skills as part of workforce planning.

Virtual Care Expands Employment Opportunities

Virtual care has also become an established component of healthcare delivery.

Telehealth can allow providers to reach patients who may have difficulty traveling to a hospital or clinic.

This transition has driven rapid growth in Telehealth / Remote / Virtual Jobs, creating opportunities for healthcare professionals to work in care models that are not entirely tied to a physical facility.

Virtual care can also support rural and underserved communities where access to local specialists may be limited.

As a result, healthcare hiring increasingly includes positions connected with remote patient services and digital care coordination.

Rehabilitation Remains a Major Hiring Area

The large number of rehabilitation-related openings at Select Medical highlights the importance of this segment of the healthcare workforce.

Physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists support patients recovering from injuries, surgery, illness and other medical conditions.

Demand for rehabilitation services can also be influenced by population aging.

As the number of older adults increases, healthcare systems may require additional rehabilitation professionals to support recovery and functional independence.

Rural Healthcare Continues to Face Workforce Pressure

Healthcare workforce challenges can be particularly significant in rural communities.

Rural facilities often have smaller local labor markets and may have difficulty attracting specialized professionals.

Hospitals in these areas can compete with larger metropolitan systems that may offer more specialized career opportunities.

Recruitment incentives, training partnerships and workforce development programs can therefore play an important role in rural healthcare staffing.

Compensation Remains Part of Recruitment Strategy

Compensation continues to be an important component of healthcare recruitment.

The use of sign-on bonuses of up to $20,000 in some Select Medical positions illustrates how employers can use financial incentives to attract candidates.

However, compensation is only one part of the overall employment package.

Healthcare professionals may also consider:

• Flexible scheduling and work-life balance
• Comprehensive medical, dental and retirement benefits
• Career development and tuition reimbursement
• Manageable patient workloads and floor ratios
• Professional autonomy in clinical practice
• Geographic location and facility amenities
• Ongoing clinical training opportunities
• Transparent pathways for leadership advancement

Employers therefore increasingly need to compete on multiple aspects of the employment experience.

What the September Hiring Activity Shows

The latest hiring activity provides several indications about the U.S. healthcare labor market.

First, healthcare employers continue to post substantial numbers of positions across multiple occupational categories.

Second, demand extends well beyond registered nurses to include rehabilitation professionals, respiratory therapists, technicians, pharmacy workers, APPs and administrative staff.

Third, healthcare organizations are increasingly focused on retention and internal workforce development rather than relying exclusively on external recruitment.

Finally, new areas such as digital health, virtual care, cybersecurity and AI-related healthcare operations are creating additional workforce requirements.

Healthcare Hiring Outlook

The U.S. healthcare labor market is expected to remain active through the remainder of 2026.

Demand is particularly visible for registered nurses, allied health professionals, advanced practice providers, rehabilitation specialists and clinical support workers.

At the same time, healthcare organizations are developing broader workforce strategies that combine recruitment with retention, career development, apprenticeships and team-based care.

Large health systems continue to add positions, while specialized providers are expanding their teams in rehabilitation and other areas.

The workforce challenge is therefore not limited to the number of open positions. Employers must also find professionals with the appropriate experience, credentials and specialized skills.

For healthcare professionals, the current environment continues to provide opportunities across hospitals, outpatient facilities, rehabilitation providers, specialty clinics and emerging digital healthcare operations.

For employers, the remainder of 2026 is likely to remain focused on two interconnected priorities: bringing qualified professionals into the workforce and keeping experienced employees within it.

The combination of continued hiring activity, workforce shortages, an aging employee population and new healthcare technologies means that recruitment and retention will remain central issues for the U.S. healthcare sector.