Radiologist Job Growth Continues

Job opportunities for radiologists have continued to increase since 2013, according to a study published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

Researchers from the University of Queensland School of Medicine, Ochsner Clinical School in New Orleans, LA, and Sage Computing, Inc., in Reston, VA, reviewed the results of an annual electronic survey issued by the ACR Commission on Human Resources to determine the status of radiology job opportunities in the U.S.

Group leads, identified by the Practice of Radiology Environment Database (PRED), were asked to complete an electronic survey developed by the Commission on Human Resources. The survey asked group leads to report the number of radiologists they currently employ or supervise, how many were hired in 2015, and how many they planned to hire in 2016 and 2019. In addition, the researchers wanted to know the subspecialty areas used as the main reason for hiring each physician, as well the ages and sex of their current workforce. Thirty-two percent of group leaders, corresponding to 13,074 radiologists (39% of all practicing radiologists) responded to this survey.

The results showed the following:

• 78.6% of radiologists are male

• 6% of radiologists are older than 65

• 22% of radiologists are between ages 56 and 65

• 19% of radiologists older than 65 retired in 2015

• 15% of all radiologists work part-time[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_crop","fid":"51458","attributes":{"alt":"Radiology","class":"media-image media-image-right","id":"media_crop_1013854124402","media_crop_h":"0","media_crop_image_style":"-1","media_crop_instance":"6341","media_crop_rotate":"0","media_crop_scale_h":"0","media_crop_scale_w":"0","media_crop_w":"0","media_crop_x":"0","media_crop_y":"0","style":"height: 140px; width: 171px; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; margin: 1px; float: right;","title":"©Sam72/Shutterstock.com","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]

In addition, 13.3% of the radiologist workforce are general radiologists, 45% of new hires came from existing jobs, and 55% were first-time hires.

It is projected that between 1,713 and 2,223 new jobs will be available in 2016, a 16.2% increase from hiring in 2015.