In April, Staffing Industry Analysts administered a travel nurse benchmarking survey in partnership with the National Association of Travel Healthcare Organizations. Twenty-one firms participated. In total, the survey accounted for $2.4 billion of travel nurse staffing revenue in 2015, representing more than two-thirds of the travel nurse market, by our estimates. Below we present some of the highlights from the analysis of this benchmarking survey.

Growth in revenue, bill rates, and volume of services in the travel nurse industry

Aggregate year-over-year travel nurse revenue growth among survey respondents was 39% in 2015 (all firms reported results on either a pro forma or organic basis), a number slightly higher than that published in our April 2016 US Staffing Industry Forecast report. While there was a wide distribution of growth rates among individual firms, even at the 25th percentile growth was a whopping 35% (in other words, three quarters of respondents reported revenue growth above 35% in 2015). Generally speaking, smaller firms grew faster than larger firms.

Fig 1: 2015/2014 year-over-year revenue growth (n=21)

The 39% revenue growth was driven primarily by a surge in the number of billed hours, and also by bill rate increases. The median bill rate increased from $61.27 in 2014 to $64.54 in 2015.

Account Manager and Recruiter Compensation on the Rise

The survey also tracked internal compensation trends in the travel nurse industry. The benchmarking analysis found that total compensation increased substantially in aggregate for both sales account managers and recruiters at travel nurse organizations, with the increase driven primarily by gains in variable compensation (unsurprising in a thriving market).

Fig 2: Aggregate Compensation (n=21)

Firms interested in learning more about NATHO can contact info@natho.org, and firms with questions about the Travel Nurse Benchmarking Survey - or are interested in participating next year - can contact dfrancis@staffingindustry.com.