Healthcare Online Job Postings Taper in May

Online job ads for healthcare practitioners and technical workers tapered off in May, the second straight month of declines, but there were still nearly three jobs available for every highly skilled healthcare professional looking for work, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted Online report.

Labor demand for healthcare practitioners and technical occupations fell by 3,400 listings in April to 565,100. The drop was led by declines in advertised vacancies for speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and physical therapists. Healthcare support positions grew by 4,100 new listings to 133,200 in April, even though there were declines in openings for physical and occupational therapist assistants, The Conference Board reports.

The board's Help Wanted Online Data Series tracks more than 1,000 online job boards across the United States.

Even with May's decline in online job listings, there were nearly three jobs for every healthcare technician and practitioner job seeker, with an average salary of $34.27 an hour. Conversely, there were 1.9 healthcare support workers for every online job listing, with pay averaging $12.94 an hour, The Conference Board reports.

Online job listings in healthcare continue to yo-yo from month to month. In April, labor demand for healthcare practitioners and technical occupations fell by 28,600 listings to 568,500, while support positions fell by 11,400 new listings to 129,100 for the month. In March, healthcare practitioners and technical occupations grew by 3,700, and healthcare support positions posted 4,400 new listings, with the primary demand coming for physical therapist assistants, home health aides, nursing aides, and medical assistants.