As a group, physicians entering today’s job market are carefully considering all their options, accepting only about 70% of job offers, according to recent research from an organization of in-house recruiters of physicians and other health care professionals.
High demand and stiff competition can empower physician residents and fellows searching for their first role out of training to be selective, while also weighing the value of preserving their leverage against the risk of being uncommunicative.
“We’re also seeing that candidates are rejecting more offers,” said Carey Goryl, CEO of the Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR), a professional organization of internal physician and health care provider-recruitment professionals. “The employer might have found a good candidate, [thinking,] ‘We think this is a good fit, but we know that candidates have the ability, with the demand, to interview at more places at one time.’”
The “2025 AAPPR Physician and Provider Recruitment Benchmarking Report: Search Dynamics and Trends” includes information from 128 organizations that participated in the annual research study and includes details from more than 15,000 searches, 61% of which were for physicians. The report showed 70.6% of job offers to physicians were accepted the previous year.
“I hear the anecdotal stories all the time from recruiters who have heard from their candidates that they are” considering more than one role, Goryl said. “To some extent, candidates can be very transparent about saying, ‘I’m waiting on other offers.’”
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Data reveals strong demand
The statistics for the average percentage of physician job offers being accepted, as reported by recruitment professionals, have hovered in around the 70% acceptance rate since 2018, though there was a spike around the same time as the COVID-19 public health emergency.
According to AAPPR data, average acceptance rates for physician job offers were reported at:
- 71.2% in 2023.
- 70.9% in 2022.
- 76.4% in 2021.
- 74.4% in 2020.
- 71.4% in 2019.
- 68% in 2018.
Acceptance rates varied somewhat by the type of health care organization making the offer. Academic and university hospital settings had the highest average physician job-offer acceptance rate, at 74%. Multispecialty and ambulatory physician practices reported the lowest, 70.4%. Multihospital and integrated health delivery systems reported a 72.6% acceptance rate for physician job offers.
Health care organization size also correlated with different physician job-offer acceptance rates. By total number of physicians and other health care professionals, the rates were:
- Fewer than 200—71.2%.
- 200 to 749—66.8%.
- 750 or more—73.8%.
As for location, an average 72.3% of physician job offers from organizations serving urban areas were accepted by physicians, according to the data, and 68% of offers from organizations serving suburban areas were accepted. Figures for organizations serving rural areas represented too small of a sample size to be included in the report.
Not enough physicians to fill roles
The Association of American Medical Colleges projects that the U.S. faces a shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036, half of which will be in nonprimary care specialties.
As shortages become an increasing problem, many physicians in training are seeing evidence of the demand before they even begin applying. In the most recent survey of final-year residents from recruiter AMN Healthcare Physician Solutions, 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.
AAPPR data shows it took health care organizations 121 days to fill a typical physician role. It took a median 93 days to fill primary care physician jobs and 176 days to fill physician roles in surgery. The median number of days to fill physician jobs in nonsurgical specialties outside primary care was also 176 days.
“Candidates are now slowing down the process because they are waiting for all the offers to come in so that they can compare, they can leverage,” Goryl said. “That might work in their interest, but if the employer does have a second candidate and the first candidate that they offered to is taking too long to decide, there's a risk there.”
Goryl emphasizes a delicate balance between transparency and strategy in the job search process. While physicians are under no obligation to reveal the intricacies of their decision-making nexus, keeping recruiters somewhat in the loop can foster goodwill and smoother communication on both sides.
“The recruitment professional appreciates knowing that's where the candidate is at, which is certainly better than getting no information,” Goryl said. “But it's still a job market, and it’s not uncommon for candidates to withhold that and keep that to themselves and keep potential employers waiting.”
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