Hospitals and other healthcare organizations added 374,000 new jobs in 2016, and job growth in the sector is expected to continue. According to the 2017 Healthcare Recruiting Trends Report, more than half of healthcare employers and recruiters plan to hire more professionals in the first half of 2017 than they did in the last six months of 2016.
However, many organizations are also experiencing increased employee turnover and say finding and hiring qualified candidates is taking longer than ever before.
The 2017 Healthcare Recruiting Trends Report includes survey responses from 352 healthcare recruiters and hiring managers from Health eCareers, an online career hub for the healthcare industry.
Health eCareers reported a 23 percent spike in healthcare job postings on its site in 2016, and 79 percent of survey respondents said layoffs in their organizations in the first half of 2017 are unlikely.
Although the room for job growth is ample, the survey found that more than a third (36 percent) of survey respondents reported increased employee turnover in 2016. Nearly half (49 percent) of survey respondents said it took longer to fill vacant roles last year than in the past.
It's a job seeker's market. The survey also found that only one-third of hiring managers and recruiters reported higher budgets this year than in 2016. At the same time, 64 percent of employers and hiring managers say they are offering higher starting salaries this year to increase competitiveness. Seventy-two percent are offering signing bonuses and 60 percent say they'll pay for an employee to relocate.
Higher salary demands have prevented 52 percent of employers from filling positions, forcing them to keep positions open or expand recruitment efforts to a wider geographic region.