Hiring/Arizona/Healthcare Social Workers
Healthcare Social Workers hiring difficulty in Phoenix, AZ
The public market difficulty score for Healthcare Social Workers in Phoenix, AZ is 4.6 out of 10, in the elevated band. National hiring demand for the occupation is weighed against local pay and local supply. This occupation has no row in the 2025–2035 projections extract used here, so both demand components sit at the bottom of the scale used for occupations that do. This metro has fewer of these workers than the national mix. The location quotient is 0.78 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). OEWS counts 0.944 of these jobs per 1,000 jobs in the metro. That count is shown here and is not a score input. Arizona has 212 designated Mental Health shortage-area IDs, 2.8 per 100,000 civilian residents (HRSA, September 30, 2026). That state figure is used because this occupation practices in mental health. In Arizona, the December 2025 job openings rate for all industries, statewide, was 3.6%, below the U.S. rate of 4.0% that same month. The statewide hiring pace was 29.0 days, shorter than the U.S. pace of 37.8 days (BLS JOLTS, total nonfarm). The metro median of $67,090 a year is within 3 percent of the U.S. median of $67,880 and above the Arizona median of $64,030 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). OEWS counts 2,240 jobs in this occupation in the metro (May 2025). No workplace count is shown for Phoenix. The provider-registry extract was built from Oklahoma and Texas city queries and stops at those metros. On healthcare employment in practitioner and support occupations, Phoenix sits at rank 11 in this set of 80 metros.
Demand from national projections, the local pay premium, and a supply modifier. How this score is built
Key numbers
JOLTS on this page is a statewide, all-industry figure. It is the same number for every role in Arizona. It is a December 2025 print, matched to the U.S. total-nonfarm print for that month.
Annual pay
Metro employment 2,240 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). Location quotient 0.78. Jobs per 1,000 in the metro: 0.944. Metro area: Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ.
| Percentile | Metro | AZ | U.S. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25th | $55,840 | $53,210 | $56,710 |
| Median | $67,090 | $64,030 | $67,880 |
| 75th | $82,180 | $80,100 | $82,240 |
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Unpublished cells stay blank here.
Score components
| Component | Weight | Input | Score | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Projected openings | 18% | Not in extract | 4.0 | This occupation has no row in the projections extract. The component is the bottom of the scale, the same value the lowest projected occupation on the grid receives. It is not an estimated openings rate. |
| Projected growth | 22% | Not in extract | 4.0 | This occupation has no row in the projections extract. The component is the bottom of the scale, the same value the lowest projected occupation on the grid receives. It is not an estimated openings rate. |
| Pay versus U.S. median | 40% | 0.99× | 4.5 | Metro median $67,090 divided by the U.S. median $67,880 for this occupation. Higher ratio, higher component. Ranked among the 1,733 scored pages. |
| Mental Health shortage areas | 8% | 2.8 | 6.2 | 212 designated Mental Health HPSA IDs in Arizona, per 100,000 civilian residents (population 7,607,079 on July 1, 2025). HRSA, September 30, 2026. Higher rate, higher component. |
| Location quotient | 8% | 0.78 | 8.1 | Fewer of these workers than the national mix. BLS OEWS, May 2025. Lower quotient, higher component, and only as a modifier. Ranked among the 1,733 scored pages. |
| Statewide labor market | 4% | 3.6% · 29.0 days | 1.6 | Mean of two ranks among 51 states and DC: the December 2025 total-nonfarm openings rate (component 2.8) and the hiring pace (component 0.4). Same number for every role in Arizona. |
Shown score 4.6 is the weighted average, rounded half up to one decimal. When this occupation is not a primary-care, dental, or mental-health match, the shortage weight is left out and the other weights are scaled to 100 percent. Full method
Closest metros for Healthcare Social Workers
Straight-line miles between principal-city coordinates in the Census 2024 Gazetteer place file used by this site.
This role in other metros
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