Employment Market for Radiologists


In 2004, job listings per job seeker were 1.1 in 2004, stable over the past 2 years but much below the 2000 peak. The overall number of positions advertised declined by 14% in 2003 compared with 2002 and by an additional 17% in 2004, reaching the lowest level since 1998. In 2004, 45.3% of positions advertised were academic. Comparing 2003–2004 with 2001–2002, all geographic regions exhibited absolute declines in advertisements except the Northeast, which showed a 1.5% increase. Absolute increases occurred for musculoskeletal and emergency radiology positions. Statistically significant proportional decreases in advertising occurred for general radiology, vascular/interventional radiology, and pediatric radiology positions. Vacancies in academic radiology departments averaged 3.9 per department in 2004, very similar to 2003, but down 29% relative to 2001, when surveys of these vacancies began; vacancies decreased for all subspecialties as compared with 2001.

Three separate data sources (the ratio of job listings to job seekers, the number of job advertisements, and the number of academic vacancies) confirm a substantial and broad-based multiyear decline in the strength of the demand for diagnostic radiologists relative to the severe shortage of the beginning of this decade, with some shifting in relative demand for subspecialties. Data are relative and do not indicate the employment market is weak in absolute terms.

For more details, please see:

Sunshine,J.H.; Maynard,C.D.  Update on the Diagnostic Radiology Employment Market: Findings Through 2007-08.  J Am Coll Radiol. 2007 Oct;4(10):686-90

These findings are consistent with a mid-2003 radiologist workload survey reported by Meghea and Sunshine [Who's Overworked and Who's Underworked among Radiologists? An Update on the Radiologist Shortage, Radiology, 2005], which concluded that an overall balance existed between workload and radiologist supply in 2003, after an earlier survey in 2000 had shown that over half of all radiologists felt overworked.

Merritt-Hawkins, a major private recruitment firm reports radiology is the second-most sought after specialty in the recruitments they are commissioned to undertake, indicating that radiology positions are harder to fill than those in almost any other physician specialty. For more details, please see: 2005 Review of Physician Incentives including average recruitment salaries and signing bonuses.