What is the radiology job market like in your area?

RadMaster · Site Admin Joined: 09 Aug 2004 Posts: 179

Just wondering what the conditions of the job market are around the country.
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MagnetMan · Joined: 05 Jan 2007 Posts: 20 Location: Belpre, Oh

The market for Rad Techs in my area is flooding the market. We have a local community college that is turing out 20 students a year and everyplace is fully staffed and very difficult for new grads to get a job in this area. Another local community college received a grant to start an MRI Program in which I was going to apply to teach, but decided not to follow through. The MRI program is on hold due to lack of educators in MRI which I am glad to see. I am a chief MRI Technologist working in a privately owned free standing MRI Imaging center and I do not want to see my area flooded with MRI Technologists. We have 8 MRI units functioning in my area within a 30 mile radius and 2 of them are Mobile units that scan on weekends in which I work for. If an MRI Program becomes available, then the need for MRI Techs and salary will drop dramatically. Also the rise in MRI cross training in increasing especially in the Mobile Unit fields. I hate to see this as well. I feel as though MRI is a specialty and needs specialty training/education.
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Radiograhper · Joined: 07 May 2008 Posts: 2

Market is flooded where I am as well, job market stinks for techs and especially new grads. I ranted about it in my previous post under the 2008 job outlook thread.

annamri10 · Joined: 04 Jun 2008 Posts: 5

Hi Everyone,

I live in the suburbs 20 minutes from Philadelphia. The market in this area has been horrible since 2006. I was laid off from two different out patient centers. Getting into a hospital is impossible since their are so many hospital base Tech schools. I recently took a job as an Market Research Analyst and went back to school to change careers. The sad thing is I love the field of Imaging and I loved my job leaving in February was a hard descision. I can not even find PRN work everybody in PA is working overtime to keep up with the economy.

Take Care

mrimike · Joined: 06 Jun 2008 Posts: 13

I was most recently in Michigan where I quit my last job. The market there is essentially fulled staffed. The only openings exist when someone quits, retires, dies, etc and then the positions very quickly get filled. There are no chronic or longtime openings. The market is actually oversaturated, and in 2007 I first witnessed a class of new grads where not all the competent students were offered positions....very sad to go through two years of school and not be able to work in the field.

I've moved out of Michigan and I'm casually checking out job markets. It's pretty bleak nationwide right now from what I can tell even though I'm registered in both MRI and CT. Nothing's really caught my eye so far, so I'm choosing not to work for a while until I find the right situation.

In my opinion this is a HUGE negative turnaround even from just three years ago when the market was booming. In my most recent position we went from basically as much overtime as I (and many other techs) could physically work due to major shortages to being fully staffed in less than a year.

In response to annamri10 above - that's terrible! I also enjoy imaging, and it's already my second career. There is absolutely no way I'm retraining for a third. Confused

954heat · Joined: 29 Sep 2007 Posts: 73 Location: south florida

wow....im kinda scared now
im still a student.....but so far i love the field
but its still a job.....i gotta get paid
hmmmmmm not gettin a job after school didnt cross my mind until recently

mrimike · Joined: 06 Jun 2008 Posts: 13

This is the main problem here. Massive increases in the number of new RTs according to the ARRT. Job growth is most definitely not up 50% since 2003 like new grads are. Also looks like the advanced modalities are really starting to get watered down too with massive increases.

http://www.arrt.org/new/290508_2007ExamStatistics.html
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ecurulz · Joined: 01 Aug 2008 Posts: 4

i have a business degree but i'm thinking about going back to school (community college) for radiography. will i be able to find a job if I make very good grades? thanks!

Sidney · Joined: 01 Dec 2006 Posts: 73