Job Market Monitor

Surgical assistance (OTA):
counted daily.

How many healthcare vacancies are currently open, where they are and for how long. Counted from the public job postings of the Bundesagentur für Arbeit, the EU's EURES portal and employers' own careers pages. As at: 17 October 2026.

175open positions
up to 64employers advertising
30of them open for more than 90 days

Within 50 km of Berlin, 5 postcode regions. The monitor works regionally at the level of the two-digit postcode. A region counts in full as soon as its centre falls within the radius; a German lead region is around 30 km wide. The radius is therefore an approximation, not a city boundary. Every section below the map applies to this radius: vacancy duration, stated pay, temporary staffing and trend.

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23.8%open for more than six months

15 of 63 listings with a date have been running for more than 180 days. They have been advertised continuously for over half a year.

59.6 %through temporary staffing

More than in the rest of the clinical market, which stands at 39.6 per cent. 102 of the 171 positions in this selection are advertised by temporary staffing and recruitment agencies.

26,4 %with the ten largest advertisers

A concentrated market: ten hospitals or groups account for 390 of the 1.480 adverts. Anyone searching here competes with a few large players rather than many small ones.

2,2positions per employer

689 hospitals, providers and practices are advertising 1.531 positions between them. Those recruiting for several at once search differently from those recruiting for one.

Regional

Where the positions are open: 50 km around Berlin

175 open positions in 5 postcode regions within 50 km of Berlin. Alongside, the map shows the whole country for comparison.

Berlin: 123 open positionsPostcode 12: 19 open positionsPotsdam: 16 open positionsPostcode 13: 12 open positionsPostcode 16: 5 vacancies

Reset radius

Each dot is a postcode region in Germany. The area corresponds to the number of open positions, the colour to the share of positions waiting longer than 90 days. Click to pin a region. The name is the largest city we count in this region, not its official designation. The ring is exactly the area that was counted. Distances are measured from centre to centre of the postcode regions, with a 20 per cent surcharge on the straight-line distance as an approximation for the road route. That is an estimate, not a driven distance.

Where the figures come from (nationwide)

All sources are publicly accessible. From them we publish counts only, never an advert.

  • Bundesagentur für Arbeit58,140
  • EURES (EU employment services)46,795
  • Hospitals' own career pages14,104
  • Specialist portals2,984
  • Entered by hand24

Pay transparency

0 of 175 adverts state a figure.

That is 0.0 per cent. Another 34 refer to a collective agreement without naming a figure. 141 say nothing at all about pay.

What counts is a specific figure in the text of the advert. A reference to TVöD, AVR or an in-house agreement counts as a category of its own and not as a missing entry: it is information, just not an answer.

Reference to a collective agreement only: 34No information on pay: 1410,0 %with a figure
  • Reference to a collective agreement only3419.4 %
  • No information on pay14180.6 %

Trend

How long the open positions have been running

The monthly series of adverts that are still open today. It rises towards the right, and only one of the two reasons for that is the market.

October 202613positions from this month still open
June 2026: 4August 2026: 3September 2026: 21October 2026: 13

Two reasons why this curve rises towards the right, and only one of them is the market. First, for each month we count only the adverts that are still open today ; anything that has been filled has disappeared, so older months systematically drop off. Second, our own coverage has expanded over the period: hospitals' own career pages were added in September 2026, and the number of adverts checked each night rose from 4,000 to 20,000 over the same period. Part of the increase is therefore not more market, but more visibility. A statement about growth can only be derived from this once several reference dates with the same coverage are available; the first is from 13.10.2026.

Analysis

How long the positions have already been open

There is deliberately no average duration here: it grows with every day on which nothing happens, and would therefore look all the better the worse the market is doing. The distribution shows the same thing honestly, together with the share filled via temporary staffing.

Open since

under 30 days: 2530 to 90 days: 1190 to 180 days: 12more than 180 days: 15no date: 723,8 %more than 180 days
  • under 30 days2539.7 %
  • 30 to 90 days1117.5 %
  • 90 to 180 days1219.0 %
  • longer than 180 days1523.8 %
  • no date7—

Share of the 63 listings with a publication date. The rest carry none and stand alongside as a class of their own, rather than quietly shrinking the base.

For comparison

Vacancy duration in hospital nursing269 days
Vacancy duration in elderly care296 days
Shortage indicator for nursing professions2.7 out of 3

Bundesagentur für Arbeit, skilled worker shortage analysis, as at 2024. To the source

This is not the same figure. The Bundesagentur measures the completed vacancy duration, in other words how long a post was open that was eventually filled. We measure the other side: the posts that are still open today, and how long they have been waiting. The official figure says how long it takes to fill a post when it works. This page shows how much is not working right now.

Employer or temporary staffing

Through temporary staffing and recruitment: 102Directly from the employer: 6959,6 %via temporary staffing
  • Through temporary staffing and recruitment10259.6 %
  • Directly from the employer6940.4 %

In this market, temporary staffing firms are employers just as hospitals are, and they advertise posts themselves. The figure judges no one, it describes the market.

Competition

Who you are competing with for the same professionals

The number of adverts alone says nothing about what the competition looks like. A hundred posts from seventy hospitals is quite different from a hundred from ten.

How the adverts are distributed

  • 26.4 %are accounted for by the ten largest advertisers
  • 42.0 %by the fifty largest
  • 668employers are advertising in total

Adverts without an identifiable employer name are excluded here; otherwise they would be the largest advertiser of all.

How often a post is not filled

15 of 1,480 adverts are online for the second time

That is 1.0 per cent. They had already disappeared once and have come back.

An indication, not proof. A listing can also disappear because a portal contract expired, the source was briefly unavailable or the text was revised. What is measured is a disappearance and a return, not a failed hire.

By specialty

Which clinical areas are driving demand

The 9 largest, counted only where at least three different employers are behind them. Plus how many of them have been waiting longer than 90 days. That is the difference between high demand and a genuine shortage.

Area of workOpenEmployer> 90 days
Anaesthesiology141142,9 %
Surgery111118,2 %
Trauma surgery and orthopaedics8650,0 %
Urology8837,5 %
Ophthalmology5520,0 %
Cardiac surgery5440,0 %
Vascular surgery3333,3 %
Ear, Nose and Throat Medicine3333,3 %
Neurosurgery33100,0 %

Metropolitan areas

Cities and districts with the greatest demand

Led by Berlin with 170 vacancies. Only locations backed by at least three different employers are counted. Anything below that would be a statement about a single hospital, not a statistic.

Cities

CityOpenEmployer> 90 days
Berlin1705230
Osnabrück10631
Hamburg633225
München582810
Köln331510
Hannover24132
Stuttgart24157
Erlangen1761
Bremen15115
Essen, Ruhr1475

Districts

DistrictOpenEmployer> 90 days
Kreisfreie Stadt Essen296195
Kreis Recklinghausen205129
Kreis Düren16264
Märkischer Kreis851112
Kreis Minden-Lübbecke72106
Rhein-Kreis Neuss672333
Kreis Soest60221
City of Bottrop6030
Städteregion Aachen451320
Kreis Warendorf41105

Structure

Who advertises in Germany

The figures above are the demand. This is the market behind it: institutions from the official registers and from the job adverts themselves.

  • MVZ4,589
  • Care facilities3,812
  • Hospitals2,755
  • Practices2,268
  • nursing service1,153

Market report

Operationstechnische Assistenz as a report

A document with all the key figures of this selection, ready to share and cite. With date, methodology and sources on the same page as the figures.

  • Open positions, employers and positions per employer
  • Vacancy duration in five classes, with official classification
  • Salary figures, share of temporary staffing and sources
  • Cities with the greatest demand

klinovo Job Market Monitor

Operationstechnische Assistenz · DACH

As at: 17 October 2026 · Collected daily

Scope

RegionGermany, Austria, Switzerland
Occupational groupSurgical assistant (OTA)
Area of workall
Radius50 km around Berlin
Reference date17 October 2026
Population1,531 open listings

Key figures

Open positions1.531
Advertising employers689
Positions per employer2,2
Open for more than 90 days402 (26,3 %)

Findings

  • 23.8 % open for longer than half a year. 15 of 63 listings with a date have been running for more than 180 days. They have been advertised continuously for over half a year.
  • 59.6 % through temporary staffing. More than in the rest of the clinical market, which stands at 39.6 per cent. 102 of the 171 positions in this selection are advertised by temporary staffing and recruitment agencies.
  • 26.4% with the ten largest advertisers. A concentrated market: ten hospitals or groups account for 390 of the 1,480 adverts. Anyone searching here competes with a few large players rather than many small ones.
  • 2.2 vacancies per employer. 689 hospitals, providers and practices are advertising 1,531 vacancies between them. Those recruiting for several posts at once recruit differently from those filling just one.

How long the positions stay open

Open sinceJobsShare
under 30 days2539,7 %
30 to 90 days1117,5 %
90 to 180 days1219,0 %
more than 180 days1523,8 %
no date7—

Classification

Vacancy duration in hospital nursing269 days
Vacancy duration in elderly care296 days
Shortage indicator for nursing professions2.7 out of 3

Bundesagentur für Arbeit, skilled labour shortage analysis, as at 2024.

The preview ends here. The full report also contains: the classification against the official vacancy period in full wording, who is advertising (employers versus temporary staffing agencies), the cities with the greatest demand, all sources with item counts, plus methodology, scope and the citation format.

Preview of the document. Seven sections, plus methodology, sources and the citation format.

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Questions and answers

How we count

The questions we are asked about the survey, with our answers. Including the awkward ones.

What exactly is counted here?

Publicly advertised healthcare vacancies that were still traceable on the reference date. We count the advert, not the budgeted post: a vacancy that disappears from its source no longer counts from the next run onwards.

Where does the data come from?

From the job board of the Bundesagentur für Arbeit, the European Union's EURES portal, the career pages of the organisations themselves and individual specialist portals. The official registers are added for the structure of the organisations. All sources are publicly accessible, and the figures per source are shown separately on this page.

How often do you count?

Once every night. Every reference date is retained, so that trends can be read over time instead of one snapshot overwriting the previous one.

How complete is the survey?

Measured on 14 October 2026, the monitor lists 45,246 open nursing vacancies in Germany; the Bundesagentur lists 49,426 in the same occupational fields. That is around 92 per cent of their total. This is not a coverage rate: we have adverts that do not appear there, and we are missing some that do. And both figures are smaller than actual demand, because by no means every open position is publicly advertised.

Is the same vacancy counted more than once?

That can happen, because the same vacancy may appear on several portals. We count per source and report the sources separately, rather than claiming a de-duplication we cannot substantiate. If you need a lower bound, take the largest single source; if you need an upper bound, take the total.

Why are some regions, cities or specialties missing entirely?

Because fewer than three different employers lie behind them. Anything below that would be a statement about a single organisation, not a statistic. The threshold is anchored in the survey itself, not in the display: what the database does not release, no view can reveal.

Are individual adverts or employers published?

No. No individual ad, no employer name, no address. The monitor shows counts only. klinovo does not run third-party ads itself.

Why is there no average vacancy duration here?

Because it grows with every day on which nothing happens, and would therefore look all the better the worse the market is doing. Instead, you see the distribution across five classes. Ads without a publication date form a class of their own, rather than quietly shrinking the base population.

Is this the same figure as the Bundesagentur's vacancy duration?

No, it is the other side of the coin. The Bundesagentur measures completed vacancy time, that is, how long a post was open that was eventually filled. This monitor measures the posts that are still open today, and how long they have already been waiting. The official figure says how long filling a post takes when it succeeds. This page shows how much is currently not succeeding.

Can market growth be read from the monthly series?

Not yet. The curve rises towards the right, and only one of the two reasons for that is the market. Each month counts only the ads that are still open today, which is why older months systematically fall off. At the same time, our own coverage has expanded over the period. A statement about growth can only be derived once several reference dates with the same coverage are available.

May I quote these figures?

Yes, with a source credit: klinovo job market monitor, plus the reference date. Every selection can be downloaded as a report with methodology and data status. If you need an analysis for a particular region or professional group that is not shown here, you can request it from us.

Job ad check

One of these ads may well be yours.

Up to this point it was a statistic about the market. It is also one about you: 402 of the 1,531 OTApositions have been up for more than 90 days, and 141 say nothing at all about pay. Someone wrote every single one of them.

Distribution of 40,000 checked job ads on the job ad check scale. Median 41 out of 100, best ad measured 85. Above 80 points: 58 ads, that is one in 690. As at: 14 October 2026.