According to the recent semiannual update of our US Staffing Industry Forecast, the healthcare staffing market in the US is projected to grow 7% this year and 5% in 2018 in terms of revenue. While this is below the outsized rate of expansion the market has enjoyed over the past two years, it nonetheless outpaces anticipated growth in the broader US temporary staffing industry.

Healthcare staffing growth over the last two years has been driven in large part by the increase in the number of insured, and the consequent rise in hospital admissions and clinical procedure volumes. Though the impact of the Affordable Care Act in this regard has largely run its course at this point, recent developments suggest that wholesale changes to healthcare reform are not likely to be implemented within the next two years, preventing a potentially significant resulting decrease in the number of covered individuals. Meanwhile, overall jobs growth in the US is expected to remain solid, which will move more people into employer-based coverage.

The tight supply of healthcare professionals has become a limiting factor on industry growth, though it has provided staffing firms some additional pricing power. Agencies have likewise had to boost the compensation they offer workers, constraining gross margin expansion, but we anticipate that bill rate increases will combine with incremental gains in the volume of hours billed to propel the market higher in 2017 and 2018.

Corporate members can access the full forecast report, including projections for the travel nurse, per diem, locum tenens and allied health sub-segments, via this link.