The job market this week · 19 Oct to 25 Oct 2026
Healthcare hiring, 19 to 25 Oct 2026: CVS pharmacy jobs lead a 2.6% rise
Open jobs at the employers we track rose 2.6% in the week of 19 to 25 Oct 2026, led by pharmacy; median posted pay held at $41.43 an hour; plus the week's nurse strikes, contracts and layoffs.
CareJobs.Now research team · Published
At the 246 employers whose career sites we read all week, open healthcare jobs rose 2.6% in the week of Monday 19 October to Sunday 25 October 2026, from 130,749 to 134,145, with 41,816 new listings. Their median posted hourly pay held at $41.43, against $41.49 a week earlier.
The board itself grew to 353,679 open jobs at 2,104 employers by the end of the week, because we began reading many more employers' own career sites; that growth says nothing about hiring, so every rise or fall here is measured only at the employers we already followed (the method explains it). Outside our board it was a week of nurse contract fights in Massachusetts and a new federal program to recruit nurses into nursing homes, each listed below with its source.
- jobs open on the board at the end of 25 Oct 2026
- 353,679
- change in open jobs at the 246 employers tracked since before the week
- +2.6%
- new listings at those employers
- 41,816
- jobs taken down on the board in the week
- 64,792
Where hiring moved
Pharmacy jobs rose most: open pharmacist and pharmacy technician jobs at those employers went from 5,864 to 7,311, up 24.7%, in a week when CVS Health grew from 2,012 to 3,652 open jobs with 1,956 new listings.
Caregiver and home health aide jobs rose 14.4%, from 1,142 to 1,307, and BAYADA Home Health Care posted 547 new listings while taking none down, ending the week with 1,595 open jobs against 1,048.
Mental health and social work jobs rose 6.9%, surgical tech and sterile processing jobs 5.4%, physician jobs 2.4% and nurse and LPN jobs 0.9%. Radiology and imaging was the only clinical kind of job to fall, by 0.2%.
Centria Autism posted 511 new listings and Advocate Health 760, while AdventHealth took down 914 jobs and added 768, ending the week with 1,636 open jobs against 1,782.
What the jobs paid
Posted pay barely moved. The median hourly rate stated by nurse and LPN jobs at the comparable employers was $47.25 (a week earlier $47.22), therapy jobs $47.57, imaging $46.93, medical assistants $24.71, nursing assistants $23.00 and caregivers $19.50.
The physician median fell from $147.50 to $135.00 and the nurse practitioner and physician assistant median from $82.09 to $79.00. Both rest on few stated rates (401 and 1,156 at the week's end), so the jobs posted in a single week move them; how each kind of job pays across the whole board is in the healthcare pay rate card.
Hiring news
What was reported about healthcare employers and hiring this week, each item with the outlet that reported it.
Baystate Franklin nurses ratify contract, averting a 14-day strike
Registered nurses at Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield, Massachusetts, voted on 14 October to ratify a contract with Baystate Health that runs to the end of 2028, averting a 14-day strike. The Massachusetts Nurses Association says it adds staff in the emergency department and mental health unit and raises pay by an average of 6.2% in the first year and 13% over the contract.
Source: Massachusetts Nurses Association (union release), 16 Oct 2026
Henry Ford Genesys nurses ratify contract, ending 411-day strike
Nurses at Henry Ford Genesys Hospital in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, represented by the Teamsters, ratified the hospital's contract offer after 411 days on strike; the union said the vote passed 230 to 165. The hospital says the contract raises the wages of the previous operators' union contract by 13% and keeps the earlier nurse-to-patient ratios.
Sources: Michigan Public, 16 Oct 2026; Spectrum News, 17 Oct 2026
Santa Rosa Memorial nurses call two-day strike after contract expires
The Staff Nurses Association, which represents 795 registered nurses at Providence Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital in California, called a two-day strike after its contract expired on 30 September; 98% of them voted to authorize it. Providence said in a statement on 21 October that it is well prepared and has contracted nurses to fill in during the strike.
Source: The Press Democrat, 26 Oct 2026
Health care added jobs in September; nursing and residential care lost them
Health care employment rose by 17,000 in September 2026, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, slower than the 33,000 a month of the prior year, with gains in ambulatory health care services (13,000) and hospitals (12,000) and a loss of 9,000 in nursing and residential care facilities. Altarum's October health sector brief, published on 22 October, puts the nursing and residential care loss at 8,700, the largest monthly loss since January 2022.
Sources: Altarum (Health Sector Economic Indicators), 22 Oct 2026; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (Employment Situation, September 2026), 2 Oct 2026
Brigham nurses reject Mass General Brigham's final contract offer
In voting that ended on 23 October, most of the 4,000 nurses the Massachusetts Nurses Association represents at Brigham and Women's Hospital rejected Mass General Brigham's last, best and final offer, which added raises of 2.5% a year for two years only for nurses at the top of the wage scale. The union wants to return to bargaining, and its strike authorization, approved 2,986 to 215 in September, stays in force.
Sources: WBUR, 23 Oct 2026; Boston.com, 25 Oct 2026; Massachusetts Nurses Association (union release), 23 Oct 2026
CMS launches $275 million program to recruit nurses to nursing homes
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the states launched Nurses for Nursing Homes, a $275 million program expected to support more than 4,000 nurses. Nursing students and licensed nurses can receive up to $40,000 of student loan repayment, a $10,000 stipend, or both, for a three-year commitment to a qualifying nursing home at 30 hours a week or more.
Sources: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (press release), 23 Oct 2026; Skilled Nursing News, 23 Oct 2026
Mass General Brigham begins second round of layoffs in two years
Mass General Brigham began laying off employees for the second time in two years without saying how many jobs it is cutting; pediatricians at Mass Eye and Ear are among those affected. The system said its operating margin has shrunk to 0.3%, against the 1.5% it targets.
Source: NBC Boston, 23 Oct 2026
The week in our data
19 Oct 2026 to 25 Oct 2026, read from the careers sites of the 2,104 employers with open jobs on CareJobs.Now. Each count opens the live list, which keeps moving after this week.
Open jobs by kind of job
The board's count at the end of 25 Oct 2026, then the same kind at the 246 employers tracked since before the week, from the start of 19 Oct 2026 to the end of 25 Oct 2026. Median pay is the middle posted hourly rate at those employers, shown where at least 3 jobs state one at both ends.
Biggest moves at the comparable employers
- CVS Health: 2,012 to 3,652 open jobs, 1,956 new listings and 316 taken down.
- BAYADA Home Health Care: 1,048 to 1,595 open jobs, 547 new listings and 0 taken down.
- Centria Autism: 932 to 1,276 open jobs, 511 new listings and 167 taken down.
- USAJOBS: 2,763 to 2,953 open jobs, 1,279 new listings and 1,089 taken down.
- Advocate Health: 1,412 to 1,566 open jobs, 760 new listings and 606 taken down.
- AdventHealth: 1,782 to 1,636 open jobs, 768 new listings and 914 taken down.
How this post is counted
- The week is the last full week, Monday to Sunday (UTC), before the day of publication. A job is open at a moment when the employer's careers site lists it then; a new listing is one first listed during the week; a job taken down is one no longer listed.
- Every "rose" or "fell" is measured on the employers tracked since before the week began, like for like: an employer whose careers site was read for the first time adds its whole open catalog at once, which is how a change in what the board reads looks, not how hiring looks. The board's own totals are given too, as its size.
- Pay is the posted hourly rate (the middle of a stated range) on those employers' jobs; a median is given only where at least 3 jobs state one, the fewest any pay figure on this site is measured from.
- Hiring news comes from the outlet or employer named under each item, linked and dated. The post's words are fixed on its day; a correction is added below them with its date.
Cite and follow
CareJobs.Now (2026). Healthcare hiring, 19 to 25 Oct 2026: CVS pharmacy jobs lead a 2.6% rise. https://carejobs.now/news/2026-10-29
Free to quote with credit under CC BY 4.0. The monthly view of the same market is in the monthly data stories, every figure in the research reports.