A funny thing happened on my way to retirement. Putting it as a mathematical equation: weight loss x energy gain + boredom = back to work! 

Having done my usual job market research, I can tell you there is little to no change in the market for emergency physicians from last season. Last year, it showed 1,700 jobs; this year it was 1,701. This creates an interesting situation. There are not enough jobs for the number of residency graduates (not to mention experienced physicians looking to make a move), and yet many employers say there aren’t enough docs to fill the openings.

It all boils down to supply and demand — the standard state of the market in emergency medicine.  Emergency medicine residency-trained docs are picky. For them it’s all about location, location, location — and money! Salaries are back to, and even exceeding, pre-pandemic levels, and not-so-geographically-desirable locations are offering sign-on bonuses as high as $100,000 to $150,000 for multi-year contracts!

On that note, it’s important to realize that the job search process has become tougher and more competitive. Online job searching focuses on two main websites: EDPhysician.com preseason lists a total of 979 positions nationwide, and ACEP’s EMCareers.org reports 2,605 emergency physician jobs. Looking closer to the latter, however, I discovered that 74 percent of the jobs listed are either locum or other specialties like pulmonology and critical care, leaving 945 actual full-time equivalent emergency physician jobs.

The listings are also quite repetitive, often having the same job listed by multiple agencies. There is little overlap between the two sites with EDPhysician.com heavily featuring national groups whereas ACEP’s EMCareers features smaller groups, plus hospital employee and academic jobs.

With between 65-68 percent of jobs available with large, national groups and nearly 46 percent of all jobs open to primary care physicians, here is the regional breakdown:

Southeast

The 12 states of the Southeast represent 36 percent of the nation’s job openings, 85 percent of which are with national groups. Jobs are quite literally everywhere, especially in Florida, Tennessee, and North Carolina where the Research Triangle has a few rare openings. Look for increased activity in Birmingham, Alabama, Nashville, and the D.C. metro area of Virginia.

Southwest

The nine states of this region with 21 percent of U.S. jobs are seeing heightened activity in Phoenix, Las Vegas, and all over Texas including Austin/San Antonio, El Paso, Dallas, and even Houston. California has jobs in the big cities, including a few in San Diego. You can even expect to find a few positions in Denver as well, but at wages under $200 an hour.