Job Market Monitor

Nursing:
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.

84.759open positions
10.856employers advertising
21.434of these open for more than 90 days
14,8 %open for more than six months

11.822 of 79.690 dated listings have been running for more than 180 days. They have been advertised continuously for over half a year.

47,6 %via temporary staffing

More than in the rest of the clinical market, which stands at 20,5 per cent. 40.353 of the 84.759 positions in this selection are advertised by temporary staffing and recruitment agencies.

4.7%are online for the second time

2.169 listings had already disappeared once and have come back. That is an indication of an appointment that fell through, not proof: a listing can also be missing briefly because a portal contract has expired.

7,8positions per employer

10.856 hospitals, providers and practices are advertising 84.759 positions between them. Anyone recruiting for several at once recruits differently from someone filling a single post.

Regional

Where the positions are open

84.759 open positions across 95 postcode regions in Germany, plus the breakdown by profession and by source.

Osnabrück: 1.498 open positionsBochum: 1.158 open positionsBerlin: 898 open positionsLübeck: 802 open positionsDresden: 728 open positionsBrandenburg an der Havel: 706 open positionsLippstadt: 692 open positionsNorderstedt: 690 open positionsMönchengladbach: 682 open positionsWürzburg: 658 open positionsBonn: 653 open positionsKiel: 646 open positionsÖhringen: 645 open positionsLeverkusen: 643 open positionsHannover: 640 open positionsBielefeld: 639 open positionsDuisburg: 624 open positionsLeipzig: 610 open positionsDülmen: 602 open positionsBraunschweig: 601 open positionsHerzogenaurach: 596 open positionsLüneburg: 593 open positionsSaarbrücken: 593 open positionsHildesheim: 584 open positionsMarburg: 579 open positionsBad Wildungen: 564 open positionsDortmund: 564 open positionsAachen: 564 vacanciesKöln: 555 open positionsBad Oeynhausen: 546 open positionsNördlingen: 525 open positionsNeuwied: 502 open positionsDüsseldorf: 500 open positionsErfurt: 500 open positionsSpeyer: 498 open positionsBremen: 494 open positionsGöttingen: 480 open positionsErlangen: 470 open positionsDessau-Roßlau: 466 open positionsKönigs Wusterhausen: 465 open positionsMagdeburg: 463 open positionsWilhelmshaven: 461 open positionsIserlohn: 457 open positionsReutlingen: 454 open positionsBottrop: 449 open positionsBremerhaven: 443 open positionsFrankfurt (Oder): 439 open positionsMarkt Schwaben: 426 open positionsNeuruppin: 407 open positionsBad Kreuznach: 404 open positionsItzehoe: 398 open positionsHanau: 391 open positionsKonstanz: 391 open positionsSolingen: 382 open positionsJena: 371 open positionsWiesbaden: 359 open positionsBaden-Baden: 356 open positionsEggenfelden: 356 open positionsHausham: 355 open positionsZwickau: 348 open positionsChemnitz, Sachsen: 346 open positionsRegensburg: 344 open positionsBiberach an der Riß: 343 open positionsFreiburg im Breisgau: 335 open positionsEberswalde: 330 open positionsGöppingen: 328 open positionsStarnberg: 323 open positionsRostock: 317 open positionsCelle: 315 open positionsStuttgart: 310 open positionsSchrobenhausen: 302 open positionsDarmstadt: 299 open positionsMemmingen: 298 open positionsWaren (Müritz): 294 open positionsFulda: 284 open positionsBietigheim-Bissingen: 283 open positionsCoburg: 282 open positionsHamburg: 272 open positionsWismar, Mecklenburg: 265 open positionsMünchen: 264 open positionsPassau: 264 open positionsFrankfurt am Main: 243 open positionsBayreuth: 233 open positionsOffenburg: 231 open positionsSulzbach-Rosenberg: 229 open positionsSuhl: 227 open positionsSiegen: 226 open positionsVillingen-Schwenningen: 214 open positionsBad Homburg vor der Höhe: 213 open positionsMannheim: 203 open positionsTrier: 198 open positionsBischofswerda: 194 open positionsGrasellenbach: 168 open positionsPforzheim: 168 open positionsCottbus: 164 open positions

Each dot is a postcode region in Germany. The area reflects the number of open positions, the colour the share of positions waiting longer than 90 days. Click to pin a region. The name is the largest town we count in that region, not its official designation.

Where the figures come from

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

313 of 84,759 ads state an amount.

That is 0.4 per cent. Another 17,264 refer to a collective agreement without naming a figure. 67,182 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.

Specific amount stated: 313Reference to a pay scale only: 17,264No information on pay: 67,1820,4 %with a figure
  • Specific amount stated3130.4%
  • Reference to a pay scale only17,26420.4%
  • No information on pay67,18279.3%

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.

May 20271positions from this month still open
October 2024: 77November 2024: 44December 2024: 87January 2025: 287February 2025: 316March 2025: 234April 2025: 265May 2025: 310June 2025: 339July 2025: 614August 2025: 462September 2025: 446October 2025: 994November 2025: 657December 2025: 937January 2026: 1,329February 2026: 1,135March 2026: 1,531April 2026: 1,498May 2026: 1,875June 2026: 2,301July 2026: 3,173August 2026: 4,682September 2026: 7,856October 2026: 8,567December 2026: 1May 2027: 1

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: 37,32330 to 90 days: 20,93390 to 180 days: 9,612longer than 180 days: 11,822no date: 5,06914,8 %more than 180 days
  • under 30 days37,32346.8%
  • 30 to 90 days20,93326.3%
  • 90 to 180 days9,61212.1%
  • longer than 180 days11,82214.8%
  • no date5,069—

Share of the 79,690 listings with a publication date. The rest carry none and are shown as a separate class instead of quietly shrinking the overall population.

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

Directly from the employer: 44,406Via temporary staffing and recruitment agencies: 40,35347,6 %via temporary staffing
  • Directly from the employer44,40652.4%
  • Via temporary staffing and recruitment agencies40,35347.6%

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

  • 11,6 %go to the ten largest advertisers
  • 21.5 %to the fifty largest
  • 10,295employers 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

2,169 of 45,910 adverts are online for the second time

That is 4,7 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 10 largest, counted only where at least three different employers are behind them. Plus how much of it has been waiting longer than 90 days. That is the difference between plenty of demand and a genuine shortage.

Area of workOpenEmployer> 90 days
Anaesthesiology5.64449410,5 %
Psychiatry and psychotherapy1.37355424,3 %
Geriatrics38121734,6 %
Neurology24215138,0 %
Internal medicine24117233,6 %
Paediatrics22712030,0 %
Nephrology2247635,7 %
Haematology and oncology19311337,8 %
Surgery18811328,7 %
Trauma surgery and orthopaedics18611626,3 %

Metropolitan areas

Cities and districts with the greatest demand

Led by Berlin with 1,986 vacancies. Only locations backed by at least three different employers are counted. Anything below that would say something about a single hospital, not produce a statistic.

Cities

CityOpenEmployer> 90 days
Berlin1.986431575
Osnabrück1.0793837
Hamburg952201302
München681146200
Hannover510125189
Köln503119169
Essen, Ruhr46290173
Bremen401105174
Dresden391102114
Düsseldorf323113109

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

Nursing 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

Nursing · DACH

As at: 17 October 2026 · Collected daily

Scope

RegionGermany, Austria, Switzerland
Occupational groupNursing
Area of workall
Reference date17 October 2026
Population84,759 open vacancies

Key figures

Open positions84.759
Advertising employers10.856
Positions per employer7,8
Open for more than 90 days21.434 (25,3 %)

Findings

  • 14.8% have been open for more than six months. 11,822 of 79,690 adverts with a date have been running for more than 180 days. They have been advertised continuously for over half a year.
  • 47.6% via temporary staffing agencies. More than in the rest of the clinical market, which stands at 20.5 per cent. 40,353 of the 84,759 vacancies in this selection are advertised by temporary staffing and recruitment agencies.
  • 4.7% are online for the second time. 2,169 adverts had already disappeared once and have come back. That is an indication of a hire that fell through, not proof: an advert can also go missing briefly because a portal contract has expired.
  • 7.8 vacancies per employer. 10,856 hospitals, providers and practices are advertising 84,759 vacancies between them. Anyone recruiting for several posts at once recruits differently from someone filling a single post.

How long the positions stay open

Open sinceJobsShare
under 30 days37.32346,8 %
30 to 90 days20.93326,3 %
90 to 180 days9.61212,1 %
more than 180 days11.82214,8 %
no date5.069—

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.

We use your address for this report. Further details in our privacy policy.

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 has been a statistic about the market. It is also one about you: 21,434 of the 84,759 nursingvacancies have been up for more than 90 days, and 67,182 say nothing at all about pay. Every one of them was written by someone.

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.