Recruiting physicians: Which specialties are the most challenging?

Recruiters are still struggling to find physicians, with average searches taking more than 100 days—longer for specialties like endocrinology—and about half of all searches going unfilled.

According to a survey by the Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment, the volume of searches for physicians and advanced practice providers held steady in 2025. But physician recruiters reported that they continue to face significant workloads, lengthy hiring timelines and persistent physician vacancies.

The association’s survey collected information on more than 10,000 physician and provider searches in 2025 from recruiters representing 21,000 hospitals, clinics and practices. Here are highlights of that survey.

Recruitment challenges by physician specialty

The report said that as of the end of 2025, 50% of physician job searches remained open. That was up from 49% in 2024 and 47% in 2023.

The most challenging specialty for physician recruiters in 2025 was urology. The survey found that only 28.3% of urology searches were filled by the end of 2025, compared to one-third of searches in neurology and cardiology, 40% of anesthesia searches and 40.5% of GI searches.

Which specialties were most recruited?

The report found that family medicine accounted for 11.6% of physician searches in 2025, followed by hospital medicine (10.9%) and general ob/gyn (6.6%).

How long does it take to fill physician jobs?

The survey found that physician recruiters spent an average of 119 days to fill jobs. The toughest specialties to fill were endocrinology and metabolism (an average of 321 days) and oncology (244 days).

On average, physicians began working in new jobs 229 days after the position was posted, the report noted. Even after contracts were signed by physicians, more time was needed for credentialing, licensing, privileging and onboarding.

Volume of physician recruitment

The survey found that in 2025, recruiters said their organizations managed 100 searches for physicians and advanced practice providers. In 2023, by comparison, that number was 115.

Individual recruiters reported that they personally managed an average of 36.5 searches. That number was essentially unchanged from 2024, when it was 35.6.

Finally, the median annual budget for internal physician recruitment dropped 7.4% from $553,376 in 2024 to $512,500 in 2025.

A press release has more details from the report. 

The post Recruiting physicians: Which specialties are the most challenging? appeared first on Today's Hospitalist.