4 Recent Workforce Trends for Hospital CEOs to Follow

From cooling demand in nursing to rising CEO turnover, workforce pressures and opportunities are reshaping hospital strategies in 2025.

Healthcare workforce dynamics remain a moving target in 2025, creating both opportunities and challenges for hospital executives tasked with steering their organizations through shifting labor markets.

Even as healthcare continues to be a dominant driver of U.S. job growth, cracks are showing in key areas such as nursing, while leadership turnover and targeted layoffs add further complexity.

Here's a look at four recent workforce developments that are grabbing hospital CEOs’ attention.

Demand cools for certain roles

Healthcare hiring momentum eased for select positions in the second quarter, with a notable 10% year-over-year decline in nursing job postings and an 8.4% drop in technician roles, according to a Hiring Lab report from Indeed.

While physician and pharmacy hiring held steadier, the pullback is likely representative of caution from employers who are facing cost pressures and reevaluating workforce needs.

Meanwhile, personal care and home health was the only subsector to experience wage growth in the past six months as the industry’s wage stagnation aligned with broader trends.

Healthcare is the engine of job growth

Despite signs of slowdown within healthcare, the industry continues to power the general labor market.

In July alone, the sector was responsible for a whopping 76% of all U.S. job gains, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Much of the growth was concentrated in hospitals (16,000) and home health care services (14,400), while offices of physicians (6,700) and nursing and residential care facilities (5,800) contributed to the total of 55,400 for the month.

For hospitals, the growth presents opportunities to scale services and expand reach, even as it comes with the challenge of keeping pace with evolving labor needs.

Rising CEO turnover

At the C-suite level, leadership churn is reshaping the hospital executive landscape.

Halfway through the year, CEO turnover was up 3% with 68 exits recorded by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, indicative of the mounting pressures leaders face as they navigate financial strain and an evolving policy environment.

Organizations are also opting for more flexibility with their decision-makers, with 33% of new CEOs across all industries in the first six months being appointed on an interim basis, compared to just 9% over the same period in 2024 and 2023.

Nonclinical job cuts persist

In response to rising labor costs and financial headwinds, many hospitals and health systems are turning to targeted job cuts.

Recent announcements from UVM Health, MetroHealth System, and Children’s National Hospital centered on eliminating nonclinical and administrative roles to rein in expenses. While these reductions aim to preserve direct patient care, they reflect the hard choices hospitals must make to stay financially viable.

Workforce restructuring remains an unavoidable theme as organizations balance efficiency with the need to sustain culture and quality.