Healthcare Staffing and Scheduling Statistics for 2026: Market Size, Nurse Turnover, Vacancy, and Demand
The healthcare staffing statistics that matter most for 2026 are these: registered nurse employment is projected to grow 6% from 2025 to 2035, the national RN turnover rate was 17.6% in 2025, and Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) estimates US healthcare staffing revenue at about $39 billion this year, up 1%. Demand for clinicians keeps rising, but the staffing market itself is growing slowly and shifting between segments.
Every figure below comes from a named source with the data year and a link. Where a number is a forecast, we say so. Last updated October 27, 2026.
How strong is the demand for healthcare workers in 2026?
Government projections point to sustained demand. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports on its registered nurse outlook page that RNs held about 3.47 million jobs in 2025 and are projected to grow 6% from 2025 to 2035, faster than the average for all occupations.
Statistic | Figure | Data year | Source |
RN jobs | 3,465,400 | 2025 | |
RN median pay | $97,550 a year | May 2025 | |
RN projected job growth | 6% (194,700 jobs) | 2025 to 2035, projection | |
RN average annual openings | About 180,800 | Per year over the decade, projection | |
Healthcare share of new US jobs | 37% | Through 2035, projection | |
Healthcare and social assistance job growth | Over 2.2 million jobs, 9.5% | 2025 to 2035, projection |
Key takeaway for operations leaders: the long-term demand picture is not the constraint. The operational question is how fast your agency can credential, schedule and deploy the clinicians who are available.
What do nurse turnover and vacancy statistics mean for staffing agencies?
The NSI Nursing Solutions 2026 National Health Care Retention & RN Staffing Report covers 2025 data. Becker's Hospital Review summarized the cost figures.
Statistic | Figure | Prior year | Source |
RN turnover rate | 17.6% | 16.4% | NSI 2026 report (2025 data) |
Hospital turnover rate | 18.5% | 18.3% | NSI 2026 report |
RN vacancy rate | 8.6% | 9.6% | NSI 2026 report. NSI changed its vacancy formula, so the comparison is not exact. |
Days to recruit an experienced RN | 78 | 83 | NSI 2026 report |
Average cost of turnover per bedside RN | $60,090 | Not reported in the report | NSI 2026 report |
Average yearly turnover cost per hospital | About $5.19 million | Range of $4.2 to $6.2 million | NSI, as reported by Becker's |
Two readings follow from these figures. Interpretation is ours, not NSI's.
First, high turnover means a steady flow of clinicians leaving and joining. For hospitals, that creates vacancies. For agencies, it keeps demand for coverage steady and keeps credentialing and onboarding workloads high, because every new assignment needs a current file. Second, a 78-day recruiting time for experienced RNs means that facilities with open positions often look to agencies for faster coverage.
What usually breaks at scale: credential tracking. An agency can cope with a few dozen active clinicians on spreadsheets. As placements and renewals multiply, expiring documents and rechecks become the bottleneck, not sourcing.
Which healthcare staffing segments are growing and which are shrinking?
SIA estimates healthcare staffing revenue at about $39 billion this year, up 1% from 2025, and calls it the second-largest US staffing segment, behind industrial. Segment forecasts from SIA's April 2026 report show uneven movement. SIA revises its estimates, so totals differ slightly between publications.
Segment | SIA forecast | Source date |
Travel nursing | Flat in 2026, growth expected to return in 2027 | April 2026 |
Per diem nursing | Down 7% in 2026, down 2% in 2027 | April 2026 |
Locum tenens | About 5% growth a year through 2027 | April 2026 |
Allied health | Up 1% in 2026, up 2% in 2027 | April 2026 |
SIA's market assessment also reports each segment's share of 2025 healthcare staffing revenue: 39% travel nurse, 28% per diem and 26% allied. It reports that 86.7% of travel nurse revenue and 64% of allied health revenue flowed through an MSP or VMS program.
The last point matters operationally. If most travel revenue moves through client programs, rate cards, tiering and response times shape your fill rate. Our guide to VMS and MSP differences explains how those programs work, and the comparison of locum tenens, per diem and travel staffing covers how workflows differ by segment.
Common operational mistake: planning capacity from last year's mix. A per diem forecast down 7% and locum growth near 5% suggest that the shape of demand is changing, even where the total is flat.
What do these statistics mean for scheduling and operations?
None of these sources measures software adoption, fill rates or overtime for staffing agencies, so we do not cite figures for them. Publicly available numbers on those topics are mostly vendor surveys, which we have not used. What the sourced data supports are these working conclusions:
Demand growth is steady, so the limit on growth is operational capacity, not market size.
Turnover keeps credentialing and onboarding volume high.
Slow total market growth means agencies compete on speed and reliability, not on volume alone.
Segment shifts reward agencies that can move clinicians between assignment types without rebuilding records.
Where does Vars Health fit in a high-turnover, slow-growth market?
Vars Health is healthcare staffing software for agencies, not a staffing firm. It addresses the workload the statistics point to: constant credentialing, onboarding and scheduling.
Take an agency whose clinicians move between per diem shifts and short travel contracts. Each move means rechecking licenses, updating client requirements and confirming hours. When those records sit across an ATS, a credential folder and a scheduling sheet, every transition adds manual work. With one record for the clinician across ATS, credentialing, onboarding and scheduling, the same file carries across assignment types.
The effect is on time-to-deploy and recruiter workload. It does not change the market numbers above, and a tool will not fix unclear ownership of credential follow-up. Agencies still need to decide who checks what and when.
Pro tip for staffing agencies: track your own turnover and time-to-deploy monthly. Industry averages tell you the direction of the market. Your own figures tell you whether your operation is keeping up.
What should you do with these statistics first?
Fix first: measure your own credential expiry volume, onboarding time and time-to-deploy. These are the figures your team controls.
Next: compare your segment mix with the forecasts above, and ask whether your systems handle every assignment type you work.
Later: build dashboards on fill rate and response time once the base data is clean. For help evaluating tools, see our healthcare staffing software buyer's guide.
FAQs
1. How big is the US healthcare staffing market in 2026?
SIA estimates about $39 billion for 2026, up 1% from 2025. SIA's earlier April forecast was about $38.7 billion, so check the latest publication.
2. What is the nurse turnover rate in 2026?
NSI reports a 17.6% RN turnover rate for 2025, up from 16.4%, in its 2026 report. The hospital turnover rate was 18.5%.
3. How much does it cost to replace a nurse?
NSI reports an average cost of turnover of $60,090 per bedside RN, based on 2025 data.
4. How fast is nursing employment projected to grow?
BLS projects 6% growth in RN employment from 2025 to 2035, with about 180,800 openings a year on average.
5. Which healthcare staffing segment is growing fastest?
In SIA's April 2026 forecast, locum tenens is the strongest, at about 5% a year through 2027. Per diem nursing is projected to decline.
6. Where can I find healthcare staffing software adoption statistics?
We did not find a reliable public source, so this guide does not include one. Treat vendor survey figures with care and check their methods.
Conclusion
The healthcare staffing statistics for 2026 point to steady long-term demand, high turnover and a market growing slowly with uneven segments. For agencies, the gain comes from handling credentialing, onboarding and scheduling faster than competitors.
A realistic next step: pull your own turnover, credential expiry and time-to-deploy figures for the last quarter and set them beside the national numbers above.
