Decoding Physician Recruitment 2025: What Healthcare Hiring Teams Need to Know Now

As the healthcare workforce continues to evolve, physician recruitment leaders are being challenged to rethink their strategies. In our latest webinar, Decoding Physician Recruitment 2025: What We’re Seeing Now, Lauren Carrell, Manager of Client Sourcing at PracticeMatch, shared real-time market insights and actionable recommendations for navigating today’s most pressing recruitment hurdles.

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The Four Most In-Demand Specialties Facing Recruitment Headwinds

OB/GYN: A Rapidly Shrinking Workforce

The OB/GYN field is contracting faster than anticipated. As of 2025, the active workforce has dropped to just over 46,500 physicians—five years ahead of projections for 2030. Early retirements, reduced hours, and a shift to non-clinical roles have accelerated this trend.

In particular, rural regions in the South and Midwest are already experiencing widespread access issues. Legal restrictions following the Dobbs decision have discouraged OB/GYN residency applicants in states like Texas, Tennessee, and Oklahoma. Additionally, burnout levels continue to exceed 60 percent, driven by intense schedules, high-risk care, and comparatively lower pay.

Primary Care: An Aging Pipeline and Increasing Burnout

Primary care continues to be stretched thin. Nearly 20 percent of practicing primary care physicians are aged 65 or older, and many are phasing into retirement or cutting back hours. This trend has been especially pronounced in solo and rural practices.

The biggest bottleneck is residency availability, not medical school interest. Internal medicine residents often gravitate toward subspecialties with higher pay and better hours, leaving generalist roles unfilled. Simultaneously, rural communities—home to 20 percent of the population—have only 9 percent of the physician workforce, contributing to care deserts that lead to increased emergency visits and poorer chronic care outcomes.

Gastroenterology: Rising Demand, Limited Fellowship Slots

Gastroenterology faces a unique combination of factors making it especially hard to staff. The aging population continues to drive demand for GI services, particularly cancer screening and chronic care. Yet over one-third of GI physicians are over 55 and retiring faster than they can be replaced.

Fellowship slots have increased only modestly in the past decade, and most are concentrated in academic centers, leaving community hospitals understaffed. Unlike other specialties, GI procedures are not easily delegated to advanced practice providers, meaning the workload falls almost entirely on physicians. Burnout, call burden, and lack of administrative support remain significant concerns.

Urology: A High-Demand Surgical Specialty with Pipeline Gaps

Urology is another critical specialty facing a supply-demand mismatch. By 2034, adults over age 65 will outnumber those under 18, and older adults use urology services three times more than younger populations. With nearly 30 percent of urologists over the age of 65, many practices—particularly solo and rural—are struggling to maintain coverage.

Residency production remains stagnant, and the field remains one of the most underproduced surgical specialties in the country. Only about 10 percent of urologists are women, which further limits patient choice and diversity. Once again, burnout and long hours are pushing many into retirement, part-time roles, or concierge models.

Relocation Trends Are Shifting in 2025

There is growing momentum in physician relocation. Following a period of high mortgage rates and low housing inventory, more physicians are re-entering the relocation market. Easing rates and the rise in new home builds are making homeownership more attainable, especially for early-career physicians.

Dual-physician households and those with children are increasingly prioritizing secondary markets for better affordability, school systems, and space. Relocation perks—including lump-sum stipends, temporary housing, closing cost assistance, and spousal job support—are now essential to stand out in a competitive hiring landscape.

Recruitment professionals should actively promote these offerings during outreach and be prepared to tailor relocation packages to meet family needs. For example, one recent case involved a candidate whose spouse worked in the dairy industry. A strategic match in Wisconsin created alignment for both parties, demonstrating the value of thinking beyond just the provider’s needs.

Match Day 2025: Emerging Trends and Implications

The 2025 residency match saw over 43,000 slots filled—a 4 percent increase from the previous year. While primary care slots grew, fill rates dropped slightly, indicating waning interest among new graduates. Emergency medicine rebounded to near pre-pandemic levels, and psychiatry achieved a 100 percent fill rate, confirming ongoing demand for mental health professionals.

For international medical graduates (IMGs), results were mixed. U.S. citizen IMGs saw higher match rates despite fewer applications, while non-citizen IMGs faced increasing barriers due to visa and credentialing delays.

Subspecialties like dermatology, plastic surgery, and orthopedics continue to be highly competitive. In contrast, surgical specialties overall maintained high fill rates, suggesting steady interest and a reliable talent pipeline. Recruitment teams should start cultivating relationships early with students and residents, particularly for hard-to-fill roles.

How to Break Through Candidate Fatigue

With most providers receiving upwards of 50 recruitment emails per week—along with phone calls and text messages—differentiation is critical.

Key best practices discussed in the webinar include:

• Use clear, targeted subject lines. Avoid vague phrases like “Exciting Family Medicine Job.” Instead, highlight the location, specialty, and a compelling perk.

• Build relationships before making cold calls. If calling out of the blue, always leave a voicemail with your name and the reason for calling.

• Be creative with outreach. Tactics like handwritten letters and “day in the life” videos can humanize your opportunity and increase response rates.

• Personalize your messaging. Not all physicians respond to the same outreach method. Experiment, track responses, and refine your strategy.

PracticeMatch Client Sourcing: A Strategic Extension of Your Team

Lauren closed the webinar by highlighting how the PracticeMatch Client Sourcing team can support healthcare organizations by:

• Acting as an on-demand sourcing partner for full-time, short-term, or project-based recruitment needs

• Launching omnichannel outreach campaigns across email, text, phone, and direct mail

• Qualifying leads, gathering market feedback, and providing actionable insights to optimize recruitment strategies

• Delivering dedicated advisor support to keep your internal team focused on closing hires

Strategy Over Status Quo

If there’s one consistent theme from this session, it’s that doing what’s always been done won’t cut it in today’s market. Recruiters need to be flexible, data-informed, and candidate-centric.

From understanding shifting relocation trends to leveraging Match Day data and offering personalized outreach, the most successful recruitment teams in 2025 will be those that think strategically—and act with agility.

To learn more about how PracticeMatch can support your recruitment goals or to schedule a personalized consultation, contact us today.

Lauren Carrell, Manager of Client Sourcing, brings over 15 years of specialized experience in talent acquisition with a focus on provider recruitment. Her extensive background includes expertise in managing the candidate screening process, coordinating candidate flow, nurturing client relationships, and leading targeted outreach initiatives.

 

A long-time client of PracticeMatch, Lauren is excited to contribute her skills and experience to our team. Her dedication and proven track record make her an invaluable asset in enhancing our client sourcing strategies.