Healthcare wage growth weakens: Indeed

Healthcare wage growth weakened in the six months leading up to December across most categories analyzed, according to a Feb. 20 research brief from Indeed’s Hiring Lab.

Here are six things to know from the fourth-quarter healthcare labor market update:

1. Wage growth in most healthcare categories — including personal care and home health, dental, childcare and therapy — exceeded the overall labor market average of 2.1% in December, based on year-over-year, three-month average posted wages on Indeed. Medical technician and nursing roles fell below the overall average, at 2% and 1.2%, respectively.

2. All categories in the report saw declining wage growth in the six months leading up to December, except dental, which remained flat. Over that period, wage growth declined by 1.2 percentage points for medical technicians and 0.9 percentage points for nursing roles.

3. In the fourth quarter of 2025, Indeed job posts fluctuated between 2% and 6% above its Feb. 1, 2020, baseline. As of Jan. 23, U.S. job postings were 4.4% above the pre-pandemic baseline and had declined 5.9% from Jan. 23, 2025.

4. As of Jan. 23, 2026, therapy and physicians and surgeons roles were up 88.4% and 84.1%, respectively, from the Feb. 1, 2020, baseline. Year over year, those categories were down 0.5% and 0.9%, respectively.

5. Pharmacy was the only category with increased job postings over the past year, up 4.2%, and postings were 27.6% above the Feb. 1, 2020, baseline. Medical technician roles were down 9.3% year over year and remained 23.7% above the pre-pandemic baseline.

6. Nursing job postings were down 9.8% year over year and were 7.6% above the Feb. 1, 2020, baseline.

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