Max Mello
Director of Physician & APP Recruitment
Healthcare Recruiting · Illinois
Physician, PA & NP recruiting in Illinois, grounded in the market's real numbers.
We track Illinois's provider workforce from federal data that updates every month, the same numbers we use when we take a search. Here is the current picture, and what it means if you are hiring.
Provider supply
Who practices in Illinois today
Individual providers with an active Illinois practice address, from the federal NPI registry (June 2026).
48,280
Physicians
15,585
Nurse practitioners
5,849
Physician assistants
Over the last 12 months, Illinois added 979 newly enrolled nurse practitioners, 504 physicians, and 318 physician assistants to the registry. New NP enrollments outpaced new physicians: the advanced-practice workforce is growing faster than the physician base, and hiring plans that ignore that mix are competing for the scarcer pool.
Source: CMS NPPES registry, June 2026.
Demand
Employment is growing on both sides of the market
Federal quarterly employment data for Illinois healthcare employers.
Hospitals
263,256 employed, up 2.7% year over year. Average wages up 4.0% over the same period.
Ambulatory care
322,204 employed across 24,729 sites, and the site count itself is up 3.0% year over year: more locations competing for the same clinicians.
Source: BLS QCEW, statewide, private ownership, Q4 2024 vs Q4 2025.
Compensation
What Illinois pays
Mean annual wages from the federal occupational employment survey. Offers below these lines explain their own vacancy.
| Role | Employed in Illinois | Mean annual wage |
|---|---|---|
| Family medicine physicians | 1,960 | $229,370 |
| Nurse practitioners | 9,270 | $130,940 |
| Physician assistants | 3,790 | $131,880 |
Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025 estimates.
Shortage pressure
553 federally designated primary care shortage areas in Illinois.
172 of them score in the high-need range. If your facility sits in or near one, you are not imagining it: the supply math is against you, and every open req is competing with 553 other designated areas for the same clinicians. That is the search we run every day.
Source: HRSA HPSA primary care detail file.
Tell us about the opening
Hiring in Illinois?
Tell us about the role. We'll give you an honest read on the market for it: who's movable, what they expect, and a realistic timeline.