5 hardest-to-fill healthcare jobs in Oklahoma

The Oklahoma search to staff first is Nurse Practitioners in Tulsa. Pay there is about $139.5K, 5% above the national median, and the score is 7.7 (hard).

Do not call Tulsa empty: it has a deeper bench of these workers than a typical metro, at 2.369 jobs per 1,000.

The bottom row in Oklahoma is Dental Hygienists in Tulsa (6.5, elevated).

Count the hard-band rows in Oklahoma and you get three.

In December 2025, all-industry openings in Oklahoma were 5.3 for the hiring list.

The national figure was 4.0.

For the hiring list, Oklahoma came in above.

Each occupation and metro

Ranked table

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

Takeaways

• Nurse Practitioners in Tulsa is hard-band at 7.7.
• Local pay for that Tulsa search is about $139.5K, 5% above the national median.
• The mix figure for Nurse Practitioners in Tulsa is 1.14.
• Oklahoma ends this cut on Dental Hygienists in Tulsa, score 6.5.

For recruiters

• Start with Tulsa, OK before the other rows.
• Name Tulsa, OK in the first line of the posting.

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 Oklahoma 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 Oklahoma total-nonfarm job openings rate for December 2025 is 5.3. The U.S. rate is 4.0. Both are all-industry JOLTS rates. Rounded figures in the prose: $139,460 is stated as about $139.5K. a comparison of 1.05 is stated as 5 percent. $132,300 is stated as about $132.3K.

Sources

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