5 hardest-to-fill healthcare jobs in Minnesota

Every row above 7 got the same note: hard to fill, thin market, raise the posting. The shares do not agree.

Dental assistants in Minneapolis score 8.6.

The metro median is $72,370 against $48,070 nationally, 1.51 times the country, and the local share is 0.80.

You are competing with clinics that already pay a large premium.

You are not looking at an empty occupation.

Aides in home health and personal care score 7.7 with a share of 1.73, far thicker than a typical metro, at a median of $38,860 against $35,800, only 1.09 times the country.

Same score neighborhood, opposite shape.

December 2025 put Minnesota's all-industry openings rate at 4.3, beside a U.S. rate of 4.0.

The state is not the story.

The row is.

Each occupation and metro

Ranked table

Swipe the table sideways. The same figures are in the blocks above.

Takeaways

• Medical assistants score 8.4 at $52,570 against $45,690, with a share of 0.72, about a third fewer of these workers than a typical metro.
• Records specialists score 8.0 at $61,830 against $51,140, share 0.75.
• Emergency medical technicians score 7.6 at $49,970 against $44,470, share 0.66.
• A score at 7 or above is the top group in this file. The score is not a count of open reqs.

For recruiters

• Budget the dental-assistant search from $72,370. The share is close to a typical metro.
• Do not describe the aide row as scarce. The share says the bench is thick and the wage barely cleared the country.

FAQ

Are these posted wages or open jobs?

No. The table is a government survey or a designation file.

What should a recruiter do first?

Follow the recruiter note on this page.

Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.

Related hiring pages

Methodology

The five rows are the five recruiting occupations on the hiring grid whose best scored metro page in Minnesota has the highest score. A state with fewer than five scored recruiting occupations is omitted. Pages under 500 local workers are not scored and are not eligible. A metro page is scored only when OEWS employment for that occupation is at least 500. Below that, the page stays up and is left off this ranking. Postsecondary teaching occupations and medical scientists are left off even when they are scored. Nominal weights, before a missing shortage match is rescaled, are projected openings divided by 2025 employment 18%, projected growth 22%, the metro median divided by the U.S. median 40%, how common the occupation is locally compared with the country 8% (the location-quotient column; a lower figure means a thinner local bench), a matching HRSA shortage designation 8%, and statewide all-industry JOLTS for December 2025 4%. Bands are Standard under 4, Elevated from 4 up to 7, and Hard at 7 and above. The Minnesota total-nonfarm job openings rate for December 2025 is 4.3. The U.S. rate is 4.0. Both are all-industry JOLTS rates. Rounded figures in the prose: $72,370 is stated as about $72.4K. a comparison of 1.51 is stated as 51 percent. $48,070 is stated as about $48.1K. Rounded figures in the prose: $49,970 is stated as about $50.0K. a comparison of 1.12 is stated as 12 percent. $52,570 is stated as about $52.6K.

Sources

• BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics · May 2025
• BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, total nonfarm · December 2025