59% of health care workers say they will look for a new job in the next year, and employers guess 39%

Fifty-nine percent of U.S. health care workers say they are likely to look for job openings, interview for or switch to a new role in the next year, according to the 2026 Healthcare Workforce Barometer released Wednesday by The Harris Poll. Employers surveyed alongside them estimated that 39% of their own staff would.

Forty-two percent of employees said they are likely to look outside their organization; employers put it at 32%.

The Harris Poll conducted the survey on behalf of Strategic Education, Inc., and its subsidiary Workforce Edge, an education benefits administrator, among 1,514 full-time health care employees in direct patient care roles and 304 employers at the director level or higher, between June 12 and July 1, 2026.

Roughly 40% of the employee sample are physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners or physician assistants; approximately 60% work in other patient-facing roles.

Last year’s survey put the share of workers looking to move at 55%. The 2026 report describes the four-point change as directional.

Which staff are hardest to keep?

Forty-six percent of employers named younger or early-career employees as the most difficult group to retain, and 76% agreed that younger employees are less likely to commit to a long-term career within one organization.

About three-quarters said retaining (78%) or recruiting (75%) this group is a high or medium priority.

Seventy percent of Gen Z workers said they expect to look for a new role in the next year, compared with 64% of millennials, 49% of Gen X and 31% of baby boomers. Sixty-five percent of Gen Z workers also said they expect to stay with one employer for five or more years, close to the 72% figure for all generations, and 95% said job stability matters to them.

Eighty-nine percent of Gen Z respondents said clear opportunities for advancement are important, against 84% of millennials, 72% of Gen X and 56% of boomers.

Seventy-one percent said the speed of career progression is important in their job. Eighty percent of employers agreed that Gen Z employees prioritize flexibility and compensation over long-term development, and 68% of Gen Z workers said they prioritize practical benefits like pay, flexibility or stability even if the work feels less meaningful.

“Younger healthcare workers are willing to move on if their employer doesn’t support their career trajectory,” Adele Webb, health care workforce advisor for Workforce Edge, said in a news release. “Employers must develop a retention strategy that incorporates the learning and advancement opportunities this generation expects.”

On a recent episode of Off the Chart: A Business of Medicine Podcast, Andy Colbert, senior managing director at Ziegler, said that advancement runs out sooner in a small group.

“You might have a practice manager at a 30-staff practice who has been there for 20 years and starts to kind of get a little bored with what he or she does,” Colbert said. “They’re kind of tapped out from an income perspective, relative to the size of the group.”

Why staff don’t trust the career pitch

Eighty percent of employees said clear opportunities for advancement are important to them. Twenty-six percent said they have a great deal of trust that their employer will support their long-term career growth, 24% trust their employer a great deal to act in employees’ best interests and 23% to be a partner in helping them advance.

Fifty-one percent of employers named burnout and emotional fatigue as the top reason employees leave, up 15 points from 2025. Forty-seven percent cited a lack of opportunities for career advancement, professional development or education.

“Right now, there’s no specific standard on what is a primary care doctor and what’s their job,” Sarah Matt, M.D., who hosts Medical Economics’ Vital Signs series and sees patients at a safety net clinic in upstate New York, said in an August interview with Medical Economics.

As roles keep shifting, she said, “role definition is going to be the trick in determining what people do with their time and what they don’t, and what’s allowed and why it’s not.”

Looking five to 10 years out, she expects the same across the care team. “Some roles will be expanded, some will be decreased in size, some will just be different,” Matt said. “And I think that when we think about what a nurse practitioner or a physician or an RN has done in the past, it may be slightly different in the future, and those definitions will be really important.”

Do your employees know what you offer?

Seventy-seven percent of employers said their organization offers education benefits, and they estimated that 69% of employees are aware of them. Fifty-eight percent of employees said their employer offers education benefits.

Among employees who know benefits exist, 37% reported using tuition assistance or reimbursement for degree programs. Employers estimated that 44% of eligible employees use available education benefits on average.

Fifty-eight percent of employers named employee understanding of education benefits and career pathways as a top struggle. Fifty-one percent said they struggle to communicate the long-term value and return on investment of the benefits, and 50% said they struggle to communicate the career pathways those benefits open.

Forty-five percent of employers said they rely most on HR or benefits teams to communicate education opportunities, and 37% on direct managers and supervisors.

Asked whom they trust most for guidance on education decisions, 38% of employees named co-workers or peers, 31% named the employer or HR and 22% named direct managers. Seventy-two percent said they would turn to internal workplace relationships. Sixty-nine percent said they learn about education opportunities through interpersonal channels, most often peer recommendations (43%), manager conversations (36%) or team meetings and information sessions (34%). Sixty percent use digital channels, mainly email.

Fifty-nine percent of employees said the most helpful thing an employer could provide is a clear understanding of career planning, cost, time commitment and career outcomes. Forty percent want step-by-step guidance on getting started, and 37% want to know how programs align to specific roles.

What staff are willing to invest

Seventy-five percent of workers said they are interested in continuing their education through degree programs, certifications or skills-based learning, and 81% said they would participate in an employer-sponsored education benefits program. Fifty-eight percent said time and financial cost are equally significant barriers.

Forty-nine percent said they would personally contribute up to $500 a year toward additional education, 25% would go past $500 and 7% would contribute $2,500 or more. Thirty-nine percent would commit 10 or more hours a week if it led to meaningful career advancement; 13% would commit more than 15 hours.

Among employers offering education benefits, 89% said the benefits improve retention and career mobility for those who use them. Sixty-four percent said they measure the return on education benefits using employee retention rates. Fifty-two percent view workforce education as a strategic investment, and 48% said they have a comprehensive strategy for it.

Where AI sits in the staffing picture

Forty-eight percent of health care workers said they are comfortable using AI-based tools in their current role, up seven points directionally from 2025, and employers estimated that 45% of employees are proficient.

Thirty-nine percent of workers said AI has had no noticeable impact on their work. Among those who have seen an impact, 28% said it helps them complete tasks more efficiently and 23% said it reduces administrative work.

Seventy-nine percent of employers said AI skills are critical for employees to stay competitive, down from 89% a year ago. Seventy-eight percent said employers have a responsibility to equip employees with those skills, down 11 points.

Fifty-two percent of employees said they trust their employer at least somewhat to implement AI responsibly; 70% of employers believe employees trust the organization’s AI implementation.

“Some doctors are not going to feel comfortable with AI. Some patients are not going to feel comfortable with AI, and most of it has to do with the fact that they just don’t understand what it’s being used for, where the information goes, or how it works,” Matt said. “And because we can’t answer those questions most of the time, it’s problematic.”

“Having organizations build those change management muscles is going to be imperative,” Matt said, “because if you don’t have the change management infrastructure in place, when all those different pieces come and hit the organization, you may not be able to handle it. Whether it’s AI or other tools or differences in roles, you name it.”

“When folks think that there’s change or uncertainty, they may assume their jobs are going to be cut or redundant,” Colbert said, “and I think it’s really important to really think through how you communicate it and at what time in the process you make that communication.”