The pressure on healthcare systems have continued to expand throughout the years to maintain adequate staffing as the patient requirements become more complex. Some of the key factors contributing to this pressure on the healthcare systems is the growing percentage of aging populations, chronic diseases, clinician burnout, as well as uneven workforce distribution. Together, these factors are making it tougher for hospitals, clinics, and other care providers to fill critical positions quickly.
Meanwhile, the growing pressure is also evident in behavioral health. For instance, there is an uneven gap in the access to qualified professionals despite the growing requirement of clinical psychologists across hospitals, outpatient practices, schools, as well as community settings. The result of such trends is that healthcare organizations are increasingly looking beyond conventional permanent hiring as well as increasingly using flexible staffing models to maintain the access to care.
The shift is reflected in the global healthcare staffing market, valued at USD 49.32 Billion in 2026, with revenue projected to reach USD 83.43 Billion by 2033, representing a 7.8% CAGR.
Why Healthcare Staffing Is Under Pressure
The global workforce challenge is larger than any single occupation. The World Health Organization now projects a shortfall of 11 million health workers by 2030, up from its earlier estimate of 10 million, reflecting slower-than-expected progress in expanding the health workforce.
The pressure is also visible in the United States. For example, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects about 1.9 million openings each year across healthcare occupations from 2025 to 2035, driven by employment growth and the need to replace workers leaving the field. Registered nursing alone is projected to generate about 180,800 openings annually during the same period.
For healthcare providers, the problem is therefore not simply hiring more people. It is finding qualified staff at the right time and in the right location without disrupting patient services.
Clinical Psychology Highlights the Access Problem
Clinical psychology demonstrates how staffing shortages can directly translate into restricted access to care. The APA's 2025 Practitioner Pulse Survey found that 46% of psychologists had no openings for new patients, while 40% reported having a waitlist. Nearly half, or 45%, said they were seeing increased symptom severity among patients.
The labor outlook points in the same direction. For instance, BLS reports 81,300 clinical and counseling psychologists employed in 2025 and projects that figure to reach 90,900 by 2035, representing 12% employment growth, well above the 3% projected growth for all occupations.
BLS also projects about 9,500 additional clinical and counseling psychologist jobs over the period. This combination of rising demand and limited capacity makes clinical psychologist staffing a strategic concern rather than simply an HR issue.
Flexible Staffing Is Becoming Part of the Solution
Permanent hiring isn't going anywhere. But healthcare organizations desperately need staffing models that actually flex when patient volumes spike or a rural clinic suddenly loses its only specialist.
According to the CMI, travel nursing usually grabs the headlines in this space, acquiring a share of 32.5% in 2026. The underlying reality applies across the board, though: facilities need immediate access to qualified talent, and they can't afford to wait out a dragging permanent recruitment cycle just to cover a shift.
Look at behavioral health. When hiring a full-time psychologist in an underserved market takes months, locum and contract arrangements give clinics a realistic way to keep their doors open and actually treat patients today.
Three Trends Shaping the Healthcare Staffing Market
Three trends have been identified in the healthcare staffing market that are poised to drive opportunities throughout the forecast period.
- Behavioral health staffing is being pushed toward broader workforce models
The psychologist shortage is encouraging discussion about how the behavioral health workforce itself should be structured. APA has been examining a multitiered psychology workforce that could include master's-level health service psychology professionals alongside doctoral psychologists. APA argues that such pathways could expand access while preserving appropriate scope and supervision. It also estimates that the U.S. needs 15,000 additional health service psychologists to meet current demand.
For staffing organizations, this could eventually widen the pool of professionals available for different levels of behavioral health services, although licensure and scope-of-practice rules will continue to determine where and how those professionals can work.
- Workforce planning is becoming more data-driven
Staffing decisions are increasingly moving beyond simply counting vacancies. In June 2026, AMN Healthcare partnered with Brightfield to expand its workforce-intelligence capabilities, combining healthcare labor data with external market information and analytics. The initiative is intended to help health systems benchmark labor rates, understand workforce costs, and make more proactive staffing decisions.
That points to a broader change in healthcare staffing, which is that technology is becoming part of workforce strategy rather than remaining a back-office recruiting tool.
- Specialty access is increasingly tied to flexible staffing
Workforce shortages are particularly difficult when specialized clinicians are needed in geographically underserved areas. HRSA maintains dedicated Health Professional Shortage Area designations for mental health and identifies shortages across geographic areas, population groups, and facilities. Its shortage-area data are updated continuously and specifically distinguish rural and urban shortage locations.
This makes flexible staffing increasingly relevant to specialty access. A staffing provider that can connect clinicians to underserved facilities can help address short-term gaps while health systems work on longer-term recruitment and retention.
Opportunities in the U.S. Healthcare Staffing Market
North America is expected to remain the largest regional market for healthcare staffing, accounting for 44.9% of global market revenue in 2026. The U.S. is a major contributor to this opportunity because healthcare providers continue to face substantial demand for qualified workers across nursing, behavioral health, and other clinical roles. The scale of that demand is reflected in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' projection of approximately 1.9 million openings each year across healthcare occupations from 2025 to 2035. Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations alone are projected to grow 8% over the period, while healthcare support occupations are projected to grow 13.3%.
Meanwhile, the U.S. healthcare staffing market offers ample lucrative opportunities to the stakeholders. Nursing represents one of the most significant opportunities within this environment. HRSA projects an 8% shortage of registered nurses nationally in 2028, with a shortage of 108,960 full-time-equivalent RNs still projected in 2038. The gap becomes even more pronounced outside metropolitan areas, where HRSA projects an 11% RN shortage in 2038, compared with 2% in metropolitan areas.
The rising opportunities in the nursing segment in the U.S. market are also seen in the global healthcare staffing industry where the travel nurse staffing segment accounted for 32.5% of revenue share in 2026, making it the largest service segment. Its position reflects the persistent difficulty of maintaining adequate nursing capacity, as BLS also projects around 180,800 openings for registered nurses every year from 2025 to 2035, much of which will stem from workers retiring or leaving the occupation. Together, the workforce pressures help explain why flexible staffing models that can place qualified nurses where they are needed continue to hold such a substantial position in the market.
Behavioral health presents another significant staffing opportunity. The BLS projects employment of clinical and counseling psychologists will rise from 81,300 in 2025 to 90,900 by 2035, marking a 12% bump that adds roughly 9,500 positions over the decade. Even with that growth, the squeeze on care is already obvious. The APA's 2025 Practitioner Pulse Survey found that 46% of psychologists had zero openings for new patients, while 40% were forced to maintain a waitlist. The demand for psychological care continues to run far ahead of actual clinical capacity.
For the healthcare staffing companies, these gaps create opportunities beyond conventional temporary placements. Organizations that can supply qualified nurses to shortage areas, connect behavioral-health professionals with providers facing limited capacity, and use technology to shorten recruitment and credentialing cycles are positioned to address some of the most persistent workforce constraints in the U.S. healthcare system.
Who are the Key Players in the Healthcare Staffing Market?
Some of the key players in the healthcare staffing market are LocumTenens, Adecco Group, TeamHealth, Aya Healthcare, Maxim Healthcare Group, AMN Healthcare, and Cross-Country Healthcare among the key companies in the healthcare staffing market.
Their recent activity indicates how competition is evolving beyond simply supplying temporary workers. For instance, AMN Healthcare has been expanding its workforce-intelligence offering. Its June 2026 partnership with Brightfield adds external labor-market data and validation to AMN's workforce analytics capabilities, while its 2025 sale of Smart Square to symplr was accompanied by a commercial partnership focused on workforce planning and technology.
Cross Country Healthcare entered a definitive agreement in May 2026 to be acquired by Knox Lane in an all-cash transaction valued at $437 million, signaling continued strategic interest in healthcare workforce platforms.
LocumTenens.com has also been expanding into specialty and behavioral health services. In August 2026, the company announced an expansion of its behavioral health offering, while its 2026 initiatives have also included remote radiology infrastructure aimed at addressing specialty shortages.
These developments point toward a market in which staffing providers increasingly compete on specialty coverage, workforce intelligence, technology, and the ability to solve broader workforce-planning problems.
What Healthcare Leaders Are Prioritizing
For healthcare organizations, filling a vacancy is only part of the problem. A placement must also fit the clinical environment, meet credentialing requirements, and support continuity of care.
That puts greater emphasis on retention, onboarding, workforce planning, and clinician experience. It also makes the ability to scale staffing up or down valuable when patient volumes fluctuate.
For behavioral health in particular, matching the right professional to the right setting can help reduce pressure on primary care teams and other clinicians who may otherwise absorb unmet mental health demand.
How Modern Staffing Models Are Changing
Healthcare organizations are moving away from rigid hiring models.
Flexible staffing, contract roles, and targeted placements are becoming standard tools.
Technology now supports faster credentialing, compliance tracking, and placement matching. That efficiency allows staffing teams to focus on fit rather than paperwork.
For deeper insight into how innovation is reshaping this space, many professionals reference this resource on Healthcare Staffing Professionals.
Looking Ahead in the Healthcare Staffing Industry
Every placement affects patients, clinicians, and outcomes. Healthcare staffing is becoming a more strategic part of healthcare delivery because workforce shortages increasingly affect access, continuity, and operational resilience.
Clinical psychologists illustrate that challenge clearly. Demand for mental health services remains high, while many practitioners continue to operate with limited capacity for new patients. At the same time, healthcare staffing providers are developing broader solutions around flexible placements, workforce analytics, specialty coverage, and long-term workforce planning.
