5 hardest-to-fill healthcare jobs in Virginia

Psychiatric Technicians in Richmond is the tight conversation in Virginia. Score 7.6 is hard-band pressure, on pay of about $48.3K, 7% above the national median.

Supply is only a modifier in Richmond, where the bench is slightly fewer of these workers than a typical metro, the mix figure is 0.91, and jobs per 1,000 are 0.923.

Emergency Medical Technicians in Virginia Beach closes the Virginia cut at 6.9, elevated band.

Virginia has three hard-band rows in this cut.

All-industry openings in Virginia ran 4.8 for December 2025 when the brief is the hiring list.

Against a U.S. rate of 4.0, Virginia was above for the hiring list.

Each occupation and metro

Ranked table

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

Takeaways

• Staff Psychiatric Technicians in Richmond ahead of the other Virginia rows. The score is 7.6.
• Pay in Richmond is about $48.3K, against a national median of about $45.1K.
• Jobs per 1,000 for Psychiatric Technicians in Richmond are 0.923.
• The closing Virginia row is Emergency Medical Technicians in Virginia Beach, at 6.9.

For recruiters

• Match pay in Richmond, VA before a start date.
• Write the Richmond, VA median into the offer note.

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 Virginia 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 Virginia total-nonfarm job openings rate for December 2025 is 4.8. The U.S. rate is 4.0. Both are all-industry JOLTS rates. Rounded figures in the prose: $48,320 is stated as about $48.3K. a comparison of 1.07 is stated as 7 percent. $45,130 is stated as about $45.1K.

Sources

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