Travel Jobs: Market ‘Extremely Competitive’ In January 2019, Recruiters Say
For many reasons, January is seen as one of the busiest months of the year in travel healthcare.
Part of it is purely healthcare related, due to high patient census from flu activity and a spike in seasonal injuries, which means hospitals have increased needs for temporary staff (and are typically working with newly-approved budgets). It also has to do with how many travel nurses and allied healthcare professionals plan their assignments each year, said Calvin Hoye, a senior talent advisor with LiquidAgents Healthcare.
“January sets the tone for the whole year,” Hoye said. “Lots of travelers are either coming off of extensions from the fall or are looking for their first job of the year after the holidays.”
Travel Healthcare Job Market for January 2019
Here’s a quick breakdown of the states and travel healthcare job specialties that are most-in-demand now and are expected to stay popular in January, according to data provided by industry recruiters to Healthcare Traveler Today.
- Illinois
- RN: Medical-surgical, telemetry, ER, labor and delivery
- Indiana
- RN: Medical-surgical, telemetry
- Kentucky
- RN: Medical-surgical, telemetry, ER, labor and delivery
- Missouri
- RN: Medical-surgical, telemetry, psychiatric, ICU (Needs are increasing)
- Maine
- RN: OR
- Surgical Tech: OR
- New Hampshire
- RN: OR
- Surgical Tech: OR
- North Carolina
- RN: Medical-surgical, telemetry, PACU, OR
- Surgical Tech: OR
- Pennsylvania
- RN: All core positions (medical-surgical, telemetry, ICU, ER, OR). At least 150 openings available as of 1/11.
- Texas
- RN: Medical-surgical, telemetry, ER, labor and delivery
Other states to consider in January 2019:
Virginia
Along with a slowly increasing level of flu activity, thousands of newly approved low-income residents gained Medicaid coverage in Virginia on January 1 thanks to a voter-approved expansion initiative.
As a result, we could see a spike in traveler needs to meet an increased patient census in high-population areas like Richmond, Roanoke and Charlottesville. Roanoke has one of the highest Medicaid populations per capita, according to a WSLS 10 report.
Colorado, New Mexico, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi
All of these states—Colorado most of all—have had the highest levels of flu-like activity in the past three weeks, which is typically when flu-like activity peaks for the season.
Tips from recruiters for January 2019
As was the common theme towards the end of last year, speed and flexibility are the best traits to have when looking for a January job or February pre-book right now, recruiters say.
“Most jobs are moving incredibly fast for us,” Jamison Reitinger with LiquidAgents Healthcare said. “You have to know what you want, know what you can be flexible on, and pick a recruiter who you can rely on to guide you through this market with those things in mind. We’re seeing great candidates miss out on jobs because they were an hour or two late on their submittal. Speed and efficiency are everything.”
December 2018’s Top Markets
- Texas
- California
- Florida
- Arizona
- Georgia
- New Mexico
- Tennessee
- Virginia
- Indiana
- Kentucky
- North Carolina
- South Carolina
- Maine
- Oklahoma
- Idaho
- Missouri
- Pennsylvania
- Arkansas
- Nevada
- Iowa
- Michigan
- Oregon
- Wisconsin
- West Virginia
- Ohio
- Hawaii
- Alabama
- Illinois
- New Jersey
- Washington
- Colorado
- Kansas
- Massachusetts
- Mississippi
- Alaska
- Louisiana
- Maryland
- Minnesota
- New Hampshire
- Utah
- Wyoming
- Connecticut
- Washington D.C.
- Deleware
- Montana
- North Dakota
- Nebraska
- New York
- Rhode Island
- South Dakota
- Vermont
Editor’s note: This list is created by analyzing the number of travelers applying for jobs in these individual states and Washington D.C. This data is not necessarily an indicator of job volume. Application data comes from the StaffDNA jobs database.