5 hardest-to-fill healthcare jobs in Rhode Island

Five occupations went into one huddle as if a single difficulty covered the state.

Aides in Providence score 8.5.

The median is $40,890 against $35,800 nationally, 1.14 times the country, and the local share is 0.79, slightly under a typical metro, at 21.945 jobs per 1,000.

Fund that aide row first.

Emergency medical technicians score 6.9, under the line this file draws at 7, at $47,310 against $44,470, 1.06 times the country, share 0.86.

December 2025 put Rhode Island's all-industry openings rate at 4.1, beside a U.S. rate of 4.0.

The state is ordinary.

The aide score is not.

Each occupation and metro

Ranked table

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

Takeaways

• Records specialists score 7.6 at $62,030 against $51,140, share 0.96.
• Licensed practical nurses score 7.2 at $78,990 against $64,400, share 0.85.
• Medical assistants score 7.0 at $47,020 against $45,690, share 1.10, so that bench is not thin.
• A missing occupation is unscored when the metro has fewer than 500 workers. A missing metro is not a zero.

For recruiters

• Put the aide wage and the 8.5 on the intake before you treat the five rows as one problem.
• Leave the EMT search in its own note. A 6.9 is not an 8.5.

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 Rhode Island 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 Rhode Island total-nonfarm job openings rate for December 2025 is 4.1. The U.S. rate is 4.0. Both are all-industry JOLTS rates. Rounded figures in the prose: $40,890 is stated as about $40.9K. a comparison of 1.14 is stated as 14 percent. $35,800 is stated as about $35.8K. Rounded figures in the prose: $62,030 is stated as about $62.0K. $78,990 is stated as about $79.0K. a comparison of 1.23 is stated as 23 percent. $47,310 is stated as about $47.3K.

Sources

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