Massachusetts hospitals have reduced full-time job vacancies from 19,000 in 2022 to 13,600 in 2024 — a 28% drop, according to a Nov. 10 report from the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association.
The report is based on a hospital survey covering 56 positions and found a median, statewide vacancy rate of 14.2% for those roles in 2024.
Nursing jobs saw the most improvement from 2022 to 2024, with the vacancy rate dropping to 10% from 15%, according to the report. Hospitals also reported a 42% reduction in the percentage of hours worked by temporary nurses between 2023 and 2024, though reliance on traveler and agency labor remains four times higher than pre-pandemic 2019 levels.
The association attributes the success to focused recruitment, hiring and retention efforts.
“It’s no coincidence that the voices of nurses and caregivers have been at the heart of our recent strides,” Nancy Gaden, DNP, RN, senior vice president and chief nursing officer at Boston Medical Center and co-chair of MHA’s Workforce Leadership Task Force, said in a news release. “Through MHA’s task force, we have assembled an academy, removed stigmatizing questions from the credentialing process and mounted a messaging campaign — all within the course of just a few years. We will continue to amplify the perspective of our frontline providers as we build a more resilient, supportive workplace of the future.”
Despite this progress, the report also found that critical workforce shortages remain in roles such as sitters, community health workers and various technician positions — many with vacancy rates above 20%. The association said behavioral health and advanced practice roles also continue to face high turnover and shortages.
The association also noted that, concurrent with the uptick in hiring, certain, largely nonclinical, roles have faced layoffs due to ongoing financial pressures, and that the reduction in vacancy rates for key surveyed positions — the vast majority of which are clinical or patient-facing — was primarily due to new hires in those areas.
A full copy of the report is available here.
