Quick answer
The latest healthcare workforce statistics come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Health care employed 18,592,000 people in October 2026 and added 42,000 jobs that month. Health care and social assistance had 1,479,000 job openings in September 2026, an openings rate of 5.8% against 4.5% for all industries.
Healthcare workforce statistics show an industry that keeps growing while it struggles to staff itself. According to the BLS Employment Situation released November 6, 2026, health care added 42,000 jobs in October 2026, above its average monthly gain of 31,000 over the prior 12 months, and employed 18.6 million people. At the same time, health care and social assistance employers had nearly 1.5 million unfilled openings in September 2026. Below are the latest figures on employment, staffing, turnover, the nursing shortage, pay and burnout, each tied to its original source.
Healthcare employment statistics in 2026
All figures in this section are seasonally adjusted from BLS Current Employment Statistics Table B-1. October 2026 figures are preliminary.
- Health care employed 18,592,000 people in October 2026, up from 18,215,400 in October 2025. Workzenly calculation: that is a gain of about 376,600 jobs, or 2.1%.
- The broader health care and social assistance sector employed 24,004,600. Workzenly calculation: about 15.1% of the 159,293,000 nonfarm jobs in the US.
- Total nonfarm employment grew by 885,000 (0.6%) over the same 12 months. Workzenly calculation: health care alone produced about 43% of that growth, and health care and social assistance about 59%.
- Hospitals employed 5,816,000 and added 16,000 jobs in October. Ambulatory health care services, which include physician offices, outpatient centers and home health, employed 9,280,500.
- Home health care services added 11,000 jobs in October (10,500 in Table B-1) and employed 1,903,600, the fastest year-over-year growth of the segments below.
- Nursing and residential care facilities employed 3,495,500, including 1,591,800 in skilled nursing care facilities.
What this means for employers: Health care is hiring faster than the economy as a whole, so clinics, home care agencies and facilities compete for the same people as hospitals. Home health is growing fastest, which means more staff working alone across many addresses. See how agencies handle that in our home care guide.
Healthcare staffing statistics: openings and hires
The BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) reports health care together with social assistance. The table compares the sector with all industries, seasonally adjusted, from the release of November 3, 2026.
| Measure | Health care and social assistance, Sept 2025 | Health care and social assistance, Sept 2026 | All industries, Sept 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job openings | 1,417,000 | 1,479,000 | 7,523,000 |
| Job openings rate | 5.7% | 5.8% | 4.5% |
| Hires | 811,000 | 705,000 | 5,402,000 |
| Hires rate | 3.5% | 2.9% | 3.4% |
| Quits rate | 2.2% | 2.0% | 2.1% |
| Total separations rate | 3.1% | 2.8% | 3.3% |
Source: BLS, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, Tables 1 to 4, seasonally adjusted. September 2026 is preliminary.
- Openings in the sector were 1,479,000 in September 2026, down 35,000 from August but above the 1,417,000 of September 2025. (JOLTS Table 1)
- The openings rate has stayed between 5.5% and 5.9% in every month BLS shows from June to September 2026, well above the all-industry rate of 4.3% to 4.5%.
- Hires fell to 705,000 (2.9%) from 811,000 (3.5%) a year earlier, while hiring across all industries rose. (JOLTS Table 2)
- Workzenly calculation: in September 2026 the sector had about 2.1 openings for every hire. Across all industries the ratio was about 1.4.
- About 20% of all US job openings in September 2026 were in health care and social assistance (Workzenly calculation: 1,479,000 of 7,523,000).
What this means for employers: Openings are high and hiring has slowed, so every vacancy stays open longer and the remaining staff absorb the hours. Track how much of your schedule is covered by overtime or agency staff, because that is where an unfilled role shows up in the budget.
Health care turnover and the nurse turnover rate
JOLTS measures turnover for the whole health care and social assistance industry. BLS does not publish a monthly nurse turnover rate, and figures you see elsewhere come from private surveys of hospital clients with their own methods, so they are not comparable with JOLTS. The figures below come from JOLTS Table 3 and Table 4.
- 479,000 health care and social assistance workers quit in September 2026, a quit rate of 2.0%, down from 516,000 (2.2%) in September 2025.
- Total separations were 682,000, a rate of 2.8%, down from 738,000 (3.1%).
- Workzenly calculation: quits made up about 70% of the sector's separations, compared with about 63% across all industries. When health care workers leave, it is usually their choice.
- The sector's quit rate (2.0%) sat just below the national rate (2.1%) and far below accommodation and food services (5.0%). Our employee turnover statistics compare every industry.
What this means for employers: A 2.0% monthly quit rate looks moderate, but it repeats every month on top of a deep openings backlog. Measure quits separately from terminations, and ask leavers about schedules, since control over hours is a common reason workers give for quitting.
Nursing shortage statistics
Registered nurses are the largest health care occupation that BLS profiles in detail. Figures below are from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, which uses 2025 employment and 2025 to 2035 projections, and from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN).
- Registered nurses held 3,465,400 jobs in 2025.
- BLS projects RN employment to grow 6% from 2025 to 2035, faster than the average for all occupations, adding 194,700 jobs.
- BLS projects about 180,800 RN openings each year, on average, from growth and from nurses who leave the occupation or retire.
- 59% of RNs work in hospitals, 19% in ambulatory health care, 6% in nursing and residential care facilities and 5% in government.
- In its 2024 National Nursing Workforce Study, published April 17, 2025, NCSBN reported that more than 138,000 nurses had left the workforce since 2022.
- NCSBN found that 39.9% of RNs and 41.3% of LPN/VNs intend to leave the workforce or retire within the next five years. Intent is not the same as leaving, so treat this as a risk signal.
- NCSBN also reported that emotional exhaustion and workloads have moderated since 2022, with workloads down 20% to 25%, while high stress and burnout continue. Its next survey was in the field from April to September 2026, with no results published yet.
National shortage estimates depend on the model. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) publishes RN supply and demand projections, but its site was not reachable when we prepared this page, so we have not quoted its figures; check HRSA's projections page directly.
What this means for employers: Demand for nurses will keep rising through 2035 and a large share of current nurses say they may leave. Retention costs less than replacement, so protect experienced nurses from chronic short staffing and unpredictable schedules. Our healthcare page covers how clinics and facilities organize shifts.
Fastest-growing healthcare jobs to 2035
Healthcare jobs dominate the BLS list of fastest-growing occupations for 2025 to 2035. According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, healthcare occupations are projected to grow much faster than the average for all occupations, with about 1.9 million openings each year.
- Nurse practitioners are projected to grow from 336,300 to 474,100 jobs, a 41.0% increase and the fastest of any occupation BLS projects.
- Home health and personal care aides are the largest occupation on the list: 4,677,100 jobs in 2025, projected to reach 5,524,400 in 2035 (18.1%). Workzenly calculation: about 847,300 added jobs.
- Medical and health services managers are projected to grow 24.2%, from 640,400 to 795,500.
- Substance abuse, behavioral disorder and mental health counselors are projected to grow 18.4%, to 631,400 jobs.
What this means for employers: The fastest growth is in roles that work outside hospitals: home care, outpatient therapy and behavioral health. Those employers need to schedule staff across sites and visits, not just one building. Our guide to healthcare scheduling software covers what that takes.
Healthcare pay and hours
Pay across healthcare spans more than three to one between support roles and advanced practitioners. Median wages below are for May 2025 from the Occupational Outlook Handbook and the BLS projections table.
| Occupation or group | Median annual wage, May 2025 |
|---|---|
| Physician assistants | $135,880 |
| Nurse practitioners | $132,300 |
| Medical and health services managers | $123,860 |
| Registered nurses | $97,550 |
| Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations | $86,530 |
| Occupational therapy assistants | $72,300 |
| Physical therapist assistants | $68,380 |
| All occupations | $50,980 |
| Healthcare support occupations | $38,340 |
| Home health and personal care aides | $35,800 |
Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook and Employment Projections, wage data for May 2025.
- The RN median of $97,550 works out to $46.90 an hour. (BLS)
- All employees in health care and social assistance averaged $36.85 an hour in September 2026 (preliminary), up from $36.18 in June. Production and nonsupervisory employees averaged $34.27. (BLS Industry at a Glance)
- Average weekly hours in the sector were 32.7 in September 2026, reflecting the large number of part-time and per diem schedules.
- In 2025, 6.8% of wage and salary workers in health care and social assistance were union members and 8.0% were represented by unions.
What this means for employers: Night, weekend and holiday coverage is often paid at a premium. Write the rules down and apply them the same way to everyone; our shift differential guide shows how. Short average weeks also mean many staff are part time, so check how your paid sick leave and benefits rules apply to them.
Burnout, shifts and safety
The CDC's Vital Signs report in MMWR, published November 3, 2023, compared health workers with other workers using the General Social Survey Quality of Worklife Module (325 health workers in 2022, 226 in 2018). It is the most recent federal measure of health worker burnout.
- Health workers reporting burnout often rose from 20.3% in 2018 to 26.6% in 2022, and very often from 11.6% to 19.0%. Workzenly calculation: combined, 31.9% to 45.6%.
- 44.2% of health workers said they were somewhat or very likely to look for a new job in 2022.
- Health workers reporting harassment at work rose from 6.4% to 13.4%. Burnout was 80.6% among those harassed, versus 41.7% among those who were not.
- Management mattered: burnout was 41.8% among health workers whose supervisors helped them, versus 73.3% without that help, and 42.4% among those who trusted management, versus 64.7%.
- Average poor mental health days in the past month rose from 3.3 to 4.5.
Shift work is built into the job. BLS says nurses in hospitals and nursing care facilities usually work in shifts for round-the-clock coverage and may work nights, weekends and holidays or be on call. On safety, health care and social assistance recorded 3.4 nonfatal injury and illness cases per 100 full-time workers in 2024, and 138 fatal work injuries in 2024, according to BLS.
What this means for employers: The CDC data shows that supportive supervisors and trusted management are linked with much lower burnout, and both are within an employer's control. Publish schedules early, rotate nights and weekends fairly with a pattern such as the Pitman schedule, and watch absenteeism as an early warning sign.
About this data
These healthcare workforce statistics come from BLS, CDC and NCSBN. BLS Current Employment Statistics are monthly; the figures here are for October 2026 and are preliminary until revised. JOLTS is monthly, about five weeks after the reference month; the figures are for September 2026. BLS Employment Projections and the Occupational Outlook Handbook are updated once a year; the figures cover 2025 to 2035 with May 2025 wages. The CDC MMWR report (2023) and the NCSBN study (2025) are periodic publications and are dated in the text.
JOLTS and the employment growth figures above combine health care with social assistance where noted, because BLS publishes JOLTS only at that level. Where we compare, add or divide figures, the text labels it as a Workzenly calculation. We review this page when new releases come out. Journalists, students and bloggers are welcome to cite it with a link to this page.
More workforce statistics: Shift work statistics · Burnout statistics · Workplace injuries statistics · Women in the workforce statistics.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Employment Situation, October 2026 (November 6, 2026). bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics Table B-1, Employees on nonfarm payrolls by industry, seasonally adjusted, October 2026. bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary, September 2026 (November 3, 2026). bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, JOLTS Table 1, Job openings by industry, September 2026. bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t01.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, JOLTS Table 2, Hires by industry, September 2026. bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t02.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, JOLTS Table 3, Total separations by industry, September 2026. bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t03.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, JOLTS Table 4, Quits by industry, September 2026. bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t04.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Industries at a Glance: Health Care and Social Assistance (earnings, hours, union membership, injuries). bls.gov/iag/tgs/iag62.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Registered Nurses (2025 to 2035 projections, May 2025 wages). bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/registered-nurses.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Healthcare Occupations. bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/home.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections, Fastest growing occupations, 2025 to 2035. bls.gov/emp/tables/fastest-growing-occupations.htm
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Vital Signs: Health Worker–Perceived Working Conditions and Symptoms of Poor Mental Health: Quality of Worklife Survey, United States, 2018–2022," MMWR Vol. 72, No. 44, November 3, 2023. cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7244e1.htm
- National Council of State Boards of Nursing, news release on the 2024 National Nursing Workforce Study, April 17, 2025. ncsbn.org
Frequently asked questions
How many people work in health care in the US?
Health care employed 18,592,000 people in October 2026 (seasonally adjusted, preliminary), according to the BLS Employment Situation released November 6, 2026. Adding social assistance, the broader health care and social assistance sector employed 24,004,600. Hospitals alone employed 5,816,000 and ambulatory health care services 9,280,500.
Is health care still adding jobs?
Yes. Health care added 42,000 jobs in October 2026, above its average monthly gain of 31,000 over the prior 12 months, according to BLS. From October 2025 to October 2026 it added about 376,600 jobs, roughly 43% of all nonfarm job growth in that period (a Workzenly calculation from BLS data).
What is the turnover rate in health care?
In September 2026, the health care and social assistance industry had a quit rate of 2.0% and a total separations rate of 2.8%, according to the BLS JOLTS release of November 3, 2026. Both were down from September 2025, when they were 2.2% and 3.1%. BLS does not publish a monthly nurse turnover rate.
How many health care job openings are there?
Health care and social assistance had 1,479,000 job openings in September 2026, a job openings rate of 5.8%, according to BLS JOLTS. The rate for all industries was 4.5%. The sector hired 705,000 people that month, so openings outnumbered hires by about two to one (Workzenly calculation).
Is there a nursing shortage in 2026?
Demand is still growing. BLS projects about 180,800 registered nurse openings each year from 2025 to 2035. NCSBN reported in April 2025 that more than 138,000 nurses left the workforce since 2022 and that 39.9% of RNs intend to leave or retire within five years. National shortage size depends on the model used.
How much do registered nurses make?
The median annual wage for registered nurses was $97,550 in May 2025, or $46.90 an hour, according to the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook. Nurse practitioners had a median of $132,300. Home health and personal care aides had a median of $35,800, below the $50,980 median for all occupations.