Most of the workforce conversation in healthcare focuses on supply – how many candidates exist, where they’re coming from, what they cost. Less attention goes to what happens once a candidate enters a hiring process. That’s a gap, because in a contested market, process speed is increasingly where offers are won and lost. Interview-to-offer turnaround...
Category: My Healthcare Recruit Blog
The UK nursing workforce is being pulled in three directions at once.
There’s a version of the current nursing workforce debate that treats it as a simple trade-off: cut international recruitment, and the gap gets filled by British-trained nurses who need the jobs. It’s an appealing story. It’s also not what the data shows. Look at the three trends together and a more difficult picture emerges –...
The Register Is Growing. Demand Is Growing Faster. So What Do We Actually Do?
860,801 professionals on the NMC register. The average age of an NMC registered professional is now 44 years and one month. The register grew 0.8% in the most recent period, down from 1.8% the period before. Three things appear to be happening at once, and they don’t resolve neatly. New graduate nurses are struggling to...
New Grad Nurses Can’t Find Jobs. The NHS Still Has 22,000 Nursing Vacancies. Both Things Are True.
This is one of the more uncomfortable contradictions sitting in the current workforce data. Despite the NHS in England carrying more than 30,000 nursing vacancies, many newly qualified nurses are facing unemployment — and in some cases considering leaving the profession before their careers have properly started. At RCN Congress in May 2025, newly qualified...
AI in Healthcare Recruitment. Useful in Places. Oversold Everywhere Else.
AI adoption in recruitment has accelerated sharply. CIPD’s Resourcing and Talent Planning 2024 report found 78% of organisations increased their use of technology in recruiting and onboarding, with 31% specifically adding AI tools. The direction of travel is clear. What’s less clear is whether the returns are evenly distributed across everything AI is being applied...
The Backlog Is Still There. The Workforce Isn’t Evenly Distributed Across It.
NHS England’s February 2026 figures: median RTT wait of 13.2 weeks. 61.5% of patients waiting over 18 weeks. 447,100 people waiting more than six weeks for key diagnostics. The elective backlog has improved from its worst point. It hasn’t gone away. And it continues to drive sustained hiring pressure in specific parts of the...
Record Private Health Claims. Growing Independent Sector. Same Talent Pool.
The Association of British Insurers reported a record £4 billion in health insurance claims processed in 2025. Spire Healthcare posted FY25 revenue of £1.578bn. The Independent Healthcare Providers Network continues to push for greater use of independent providers in NHS delivery — elective surgery, diagnostics, community pathways. Private healthcare is growing, and that has...
Overseas Nurse Arrivals Down 93%. So Where Did the Pipeline Go?
This is one of the more striking datasets in the current market. Home Office figures to February 2026 show Health and Care Worker visa applications down 51% year-on-year — and 92% below the 2023 peak. Overseas nurse arrivals fell 93% between 2022 and 2025. Care worker visas dropped 97% over a similar period. Those are...
Four in Ten Are Thinking About Leaving. What Does That Actually Mean?
The RCN published survey data in December 2025 showing two-thirds of nursing staff feel their pay doesn’t reflect their responsibilities. Four in ten are actively considering leaving their current role. That’s a striking number. But I think the more useful question is what’s sitting underneath it — because “considering leaving” covers a lot of ground....
UK Healthcare Workforce & Talent Market Pulse Report Q2 2026
Click the link below to view our Q2 Report on the UK Healthcare Workforce & Talent Market – a summary view of the latest statistics and trends in the healthcare talent space, all in one place. MHR Healthcare Workforce Pulse Report Q2








