AMN Healthcare and Cross Country Healthcare, two of the largest US healthcare staffing firms, turned in their report cards to Wall Street last week.

First quarter revenue at AMN was up 43% year over year to $468 million, driven by organic growth of 28% with the remainder driven by acquisitions. Gross margin at the firm improved to 32.5%. The gross margin improvement was driven by growth in its higher-margin workforce solutions business as well as a gross margin increase in its locum tenens business.

Cross Country reported its total revenue grew 6% year over year to $197 million in the first quarter, including the results of acquisitions. Revenue growth was 3% on a pro forma basis. The company’s Nurse and Allied business was up 13% while its locum division declined by 11%. The firm reported its gross margin improved 70 basis points to 26.0% compared to the prior year.

Both firms commented on the continuing strong demand environment. In Cross Country’s earnings call, CEO Bill Grubbs noted that “Demand for our services remains very strong, still near all-time historic highs. (…) We saw an increase of orders in March with that trend continuing quarter to date.” The increased demand was manifested in higher bill rates, as Grubbs reported bill rates in the firm’s nurse and allied division grew 5.4%, led by its travel nursing division with 8.9% bill rate growth. AMN gave strong forward-looking guidance for the second quarter, citing its expectation “of a continued strong demand environment.”

The results at the firms underpin the favorable drivers noted in our recent US Staffing Industry Growth Forecast. The impetus for healthcare staffing firms will be to continue to find and attract qualified clinicians in such a supply constrained environment, though that’s a task staffing firms are built for.