While the recent boom in nurse staffing has deservedly attracted much attention, allied healthcare staffing — a wide range of clinical professions, excluding physicians and nurses — also experienced record demand. In this article, we briefly highlight recent trends in allied healthcare staffing from SIA’s 2023 US Allied Healthcare Staffing Benchmarking Survey.
Total allied healthcare temporary staffing revenue increased by 6.4% in aggregate from the first half of 2022 to the first half of this year. Of the 19 staffing firms that participated in the survey, hours billed increased 13.7% year over year. The continued demand is reflected in SIA’s forecast of the US staffing industry, which estimates the allied healthcare market grew 50% to $12 billion from 2021 to 2022. Although SIA projects the allied staffing market to contract by 3% this year, this modest decline is a result of the market subsiding from peak levels experienced last year.
In terms of staffing revenue by occupation, the three largest occupations were respiratory therapists, imaging (radiology/MRI/CT) technologists and surgical technologists, altogether accounting for roughly half of the revenue in the survey. Lab technologists, sonographers and physical therapists altogether accounted for another quarter of revenue in the survey. Most occupations in the survey experienced double-digit revenue growth, although such growth was partially offset by double-digit declines in respiratory therapist revenue as bill rates retreated from crisis levels.
According to survey respondents, allied health bill rates decreased by 6.5% from the first half of 2022 to the first half of this year as the elevated rates that occurred during the pandemic continued to normalize downwards.
Imaging roles such as MRI and CT technologists experienced year-over-year revenue gains driven in part by the greater volume of care required by the aging US population. Therapy positions also experienced a year-over-year revenue increase driven partly by increased demand from schools.
According to respondents, demand was the greatest driver of revenue in 2023 while the fluctuations in bill rates were the greatest barrier to revenue. For more insight into the allied healthcare staffing market, SIA corporate members can read the select findings from the 2023 US Allied Healthcare Staffing Benchmarking Survey.
