An increase in recruiting activity, along with fewer position closures suggests the healthcare job market is leveling off, according to The Medicus Firm. This is based on research conducted to learn how healthcare employers are adjusting to recruiting healthcare providers in a job market impacted by Covid-19.
Forty-three percent of employers are recruiting or have increased recruiting activities in May from April and 59% indicate no change in the number of open positions.
Medicus conducted two separate surveys of more than 13,000 nationwide contacts in its proprietary database. These contacts represent employers within physician groups, clinics, hospital and healthcare systems. The second survey had the same questions as the first survey, as well as two additional questions.
Other healthcare employer insights from the surveys:
- 33% are conducting onsite interviews versus 11% in the prior survey
- 10% jump with 43% of employers stating they have not stopped or already increased recruiting activities
- 59% of employers indicate “no change” in the number of open positions over the last 30 days
- 22% decrease in locum tenens utilization for each of the two survey periods
- 56% of employers that perform elective procedures have had at least half or more of their volumes return
- Hospitalist positions were the most prevalent decline in demand
The job market starts to reverse the downward move with 8% of employers stating they have opened new positions and begin to re-open as almost 43% of employers are recruiting or have increased recruiting activities. “Physician needs increase as patient volumes ramp up rapidly for some healthcare organizations,” said Steve Look, CEO of The Medicus Firm. Healthcare organizations indicated they have less need for hospitalists, followed by advanced practice clinicians. Since Covid-19, the greatest demands continue to be primary care, neurology, and critical care/pulmonary positions.
The report also found non-utilization of locum tenens is steadily on the rise with 75% of employers still not using locum tenens providers, up 4% from the previous survey.
A total of 449 responses were collected from the two separate surveys. The first survey ran from April 21 to April 27, with a total of 238 responses. The second survey had the same questions as survey one, as well as two additional questions and was deployed from May 28 to June 4, with a total of 211 responses.