Max Mello
Director of Physician & APP Recruitment
Healthcare Recruiting · St. Louis, MO
Physician, PA & NP recruiting in St. Louis, grounded in the metro's real numbers.
We track the St. Louis, MO-IL area 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 St. Louis today
Individual providers with an active practice address in the St. Louis, MO-IL area, from the federal NPI registry (June 2026).
11,660
Physicians
4,017
Nurse practitioners
924
Physician assistants
Over the last 12 months, the St. Louis metro added 168 newly enrolled nurse practitioners, 196 physicians, and 55 physician assistants to the registry. New physician enrollments kept pace with advanced-practice growth over the period.
Source: CMS NPPES registry, June 2026. Scope: Missouri side of the St. Louis metro area.
Demand
What the local employer market looks like
Federal quarterly employment data for St. Louis-area healthcare employers.
Hospitals
64,049 employed, down 0.1% year over year. Average wages up 3.0% over the same period.
Ambulatory care
52,808 employed across 4,581 sites.
Source: BLS QCEW county files, private ownership, Q4 2024 vs Q4 2025.
Occupation-level wages are published at state level (see the parent state page); metro wage signal = QCEW average weekly wages above. See Missouri pay ranges →
Shortage pressure
193 federally designated primary care shortage areas in the St. Louis area.
144 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. That is the search we run every day.
Source: HRSA HPSA primary care detail file.
Tell us about the opening
Hiring in St. Louis?
Tell us about the role. We'll give you an honest read on the local market for it: who's movable, what they expect, and a realistic timeline.