Healthcare · Seattle-Tacoma, WA
Nine of the eleven healthcare roles BLS publishes for Puget Sound are scarcer here than nationally, with LPNs at less than half the U.S. share. Careerscape covers Seattle-area searches from a remote, national team whose recruiters concentrate on one industry at a time, healthcare included.
Where care clusters
The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro covers King, Pierce and Snohomish counties. These are the districts where its largest health employers concentrate, named for market context.
Harborview Medical Center, owned by King County and managed by UW Medicine, is Washington's only Level I adult and pediatric trauma center. Swedish First Hill and Virginia Mason's hospital are a few blocks away.
University of Washington Medical Center and Seattle Children's, which is affiliated with the UW School of Medicine.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, formed when the Hutch merged with the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance on April 1, 2022, and clinically integrated with UW Medicine.
Swedish campuses in Ballard, Edmonds and Issaquah. Swedish has been affiliated with Providence since 2012.
Overlake Medical Center in Bellevue, across Lake Washington from Seattle's medical districts.
MultiCare's headquarters and its Tacoma General, Allenmore, Good Samaritan and Mary Bridge Children's hospitals.
BLS, May 2025
Figures for the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro. A location quotient under 1.0 means the role is a smaller share of local jobs than it is across the U.S.
| Occupation | Jobs in metro | Median pay · vs. U.S. | Concentration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registered Nurses | 39,900 | $128,260+31% | 0.88 |
| Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses | 3,470 | $85,690+33% | 0.40 |
| Nursing Assistants | 16,530 | $51,990+23% | 0.85 |
| Nurse Practitioners | — | $160,090+21% | — |
| Physician Assistants | 1,920 | $167,290+23% | 0.88 |
| Physical Therapists | 2,950 | $107,290+4% | 0.82 |
| Radiologic Technologists and Technicians | 2,130 | $105,200+31% | 0.69 |
| Medical and Health Services Managers | 4,600 | $160,100+29% | 0.57 |
| Medical Assistants | 10,210 | $61,500+35% | 0.93 |
| Medical Records Specialists | 2,830 | $65,530+28% | 1.08 |
| Respiratory Therapists | 1,130 | $104,220+27% | 0.60 |
| Dental Hygienists | 3,500 | $133,740+36% | 1.17 |
Of the eleven roles with published employment, only dental hygienists (1.17) and medical records specialists (1.08) are deeper than the U.S. average. Licensed practical nurses are the thinnest at 0.40, with 3,470 in the metro, tied with Denver for the lowest LPN share among the markets we cover. Medical and health services managers (0.57), respiratory therapists (0.60) and radiologic technologists (0.69) follow. Pay is high across the board: registered nurses earn a median of $128,260 against $97,550 nationally, and medical assistants $61,500 against $45,690. BLS did not publish employment for nurse practitioners here; their median was $160,090. Jobs and median annual pay for the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA metro area, all employers, from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025). “Vs. U.S.” compares with the national median. Concentration is the BLS location quotient: above 1.0 means the job makes up a bigger share of local employment than it does nationally.
Nurse compact
Washington belongs to the Nurse Licensure Compact. That makes RN and LPN relocation easier, but it does not change the size of the local pool.
A nurse with a multistate license from another member state, such as Idaho, Arizona or Texas, can practice in Washington under that license. For RN searches, that opens most of the country.
Neither Oregon nor California belongs to the compact. A nurse licensed only there needs a Washington license before starting, which matters for searches that pull from Portland or the Bay Area.
The LPN pool is thin at 0.40, and LPN pay is already $85,690 against a U.S. median of $64,400. Many employers redesign roles around RNs or medical assistants instead of waiting for LPN applicants.
Health services managers are as thin here as anywhere we recruit (0.57) and earn a median of $160,100. Nurse leader and operations searches usually need a national reach and an executive search process.
Metro profile
Group-level figures from BLS's May 2025 occupational profile of the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro, released June 30, 2026.
Pipeline
The University of Washington is the center of the local pipeline. Its School of Nursing trains nurses from the bachelor's degree through the DNP. The UW School of Medicine trains physicians for a five-state region through its WWAMI partnerships with universities in Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho.
Academic programs feed RN, NP and physician roles far better than the thin ones above. For LPNs, respiratory therapists and imaging technologists, most employers recruit from outside the metro, and a compact-state candidate can usually start sooner than one from Oregon or California. The radiologic technologist and registered nurse pages in our Salary Guide give national pay for comparing relocation offers.
For Washington's posting and hiring rules, see our Seattle staffing guide. Our healthcare staffing page explains direct hire, contract and temporary options.
How a search runs
Careerscape has no Seattle office. A healthcare recruiter who specializes in the role runs the search by phone, video and our portals.
We confirm the unit or clinic, shift pattern, county, the pay range you will post and whether the role is permanent, contract or temporary.
Each candidate's license is checked at the start: a Washington license, a multistate compact license, or a realistic timeline for a Washington application if they hold only an Oregon or California license.
We search the three-county metro first, then relocation candidates from compact states where the pool is deeper for the role.
You see a small set of pre-screened candidates in a private Employer Portal, request interviews and leave feedback there.
We help align the offer with the posted range and keep the candidate on track through credentialing and the start date.
Request talent
Tell us the role, the facility's city or county, the license needed and when you need someone to start.
Looking for a job instead? Submit your resume or browse open jobs.
FAQ
Yes. Washington has been a member since 2023. A registered or practical nurse with an active multistate license from another member state can practice in Washington under that license. Nurses licensed only in Oregon or California, which are not members, still need a Washington license before starting work.
There are relatively few of them. BLS counted 3,470 licensed practical nurses in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro in May 2025, a location quotient of 0.40, tied with Denver for the lowest share among the markets we cover. The median was $85,690, well above the U.S. figure of $64,400. Recruiting from compact states and redesigning roles are the usual answers.
The median for medical assistants in the Seattle metro was $61,500 in May 2025, the highest of the 29 metros we track and well above the U.S. median of $45,690. The 90th percentile was $76,360. The metro had 10,210 MA jobs, close to the national share. See our medical assistant salary guide for national ranges.
The region's large systems include UW Medicine, Providence's Swedish, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, MultiCare, Seattle Children's, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and Kaiser Permanente Washington, which took over Seattle-based Group Health in February 2017. We name them for market context only, not as clients.
Usually faster than most clinical roles here. Dental hygienists are one of only two roles in our table with a deeper-than-average pool in the metro, at 1.17, with 3,500 jobs. The median of $133,740 is second only to San Francisco among our markets, so offers need to start near that level.
Those are the thinnest pools in the metro. A healthcare recruiter will tell you where the candidates are and what they will expect to be paid.
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