For medical students trying to pick which physician specialty to pursue or even those already in the midst of the residency-application process, data from a top health care recruiter shows that young physicians often have their pick of positions—particularly in specialties caring for a U.S. patient population that is growing older and sicker as a whole.
Demand also remains strong in primary care, putting many physicians in the driver’s seat when it comes to selecting their first practice setting.
“The good news is, there's virtually no such thing as an unemployed physician,” said Alex Herbison, vice president at AMN Healthcare’s Physician Solutions division. “There is more than enough opportunity out there.”
Dive deeper to find out how various specialties stacks up, according to AMN Healthcare’s 2025 report on physician recruiting incentives.
Strong demand in all specialties
AMN Healthcare’s findings were based on a representative sample of the 1,420 search engagements the company conducted from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025, and include data on starting salaries and other incentives offered by the company’s clients to physicians across the country.
In terms of sheer number of searches, the top 10 most-requested physician specialties sought by AMN’s clients were, in order:
- Family medicine.
- Anesthesiology.
- Internal medicine.
- Radiology.
- Gastroenterology.
- Cardiology.
- Obstetrics and gynecology.
- Hematology/oncology.
- Psychiatry.
- Hospital medicine.
AMN Healthcare’s experts went deeper with the data to determine what they called “absolute demand,” comparing the number of searches to the number of practicing physicians in the specialty. The specialties taking the top 10 spots in most “absolute demand” were, in order:
- Hematology/oncology.
- Gastroenterology.
- Endocrinology.
- Cardiology.
- Radiology.
- Urology.
- Rheumatology.
- Anesthesiology.
- Neurology.
- Otolaryngology and family medicine—tied.
A multitude of factors play into the increased need for specialists as the U.S. population gets older, Herbison said. Statistics show older-adult patients need more health care, and more acute care, than do younger people. And in many specialties, 40% or more of the practicing physicians are older than 55.
“We have more people aging, requiring more patient care, and we have more physicians [who are] treating those people that are also aging,” Herbison said. “So, there are just not enough [physicians] to go around.”
Primary care physicians, though, remain the type of physicians most frequently sought by employers.
“We see a heavy demand in our review period for specialty searches—specifically, 78% of our searches were specialists, leaving 22% with primary care. However, what's interesting in that is family medicine was still our second-most requested search behind nurse practitioners,” Herbison said. “So, despite the fact there's this huge demand for specialists, there's still a volume play, and high demand and need for primary care.”
Dive deeper:
- What I wish I knew in medical school about picking a specialty
- Future physicians: When's the right time to choose a specialty?
- How physician specialty choices change between M2 and graduation
First, pursue your passion
Medical students mulling their future in residency training can feel confident that the field will be open for them. Selecting a path involves finding your passion and your comfort and deciding what you want your career and life to look like.
“In a lot of cases, physicians don't typically choose their specialty. The specialty chooses them,” Herbison said, drawing on his years of working with physician clients. “In a lot of cases, that's the best way to choose. … Don't just follow the money.”
When it comes to answering the big question of what specialties are going to really be in demand five years from now, Herbison said, “I can argue that pretty much everything is going to be in demand.”
AMN Healthcare’s most recent survey of residents in their final year of training, released in 2023, underscored that point. Of the respondents to the survey, 56% said they had gotten 100 or more job solicitations during their training, and 78% had gotten 51 or more solicitations—both were the highest numbers in those categories in the survey’s 34-year history.
“There’s no lack of demand there,” Herbison said.
As a medical student, do you ever wonder what it's like in a particular specialty? Shadowing a doctor offers valuable insights to help determine whether a career in certain specialty is a good fit for you. Meet featured physicians in the AMA’s “Shadow Me” Specialty Series, which offers advice directly from physicians about life in their specialties.
