Data from a professional society placement service as a measure of the employment market for radiation oncologists

Purpose: To aid in understanding the employment market for radiation oncologists, we present annual data for 1991 to 2000 from the American College of Radiology's placement service, the Professional Bureau. This data series is twice as long as any previously available. Secondarily, we compare these data with other data on the employment market. Methods and Materials: The trends in job listings, job seekers, and listings per seeker in the Bureau are tabulated and graphed. We calculate correlations and graph relationships between the last of these and measures of the job market calculated from annual surveys. Results: Bureau data show listings per job seeker declined from 0.53 in 1991 to a nadir of 0.30 in 1995 and then recovered to 1.48 in 2000. Bureau listings and job seekers, each considered separately, show a similar pattern of job market decline and then eventual recovery to better than the 1991 situation. Bureau listings per job seeker correlate 0.895 with a survey-derived index of program directors' perceptions of the job market, but statistical significance is limited (p = 0.04), because very few years of survey data are available. Conclusions: The employment market for radiation oncologists weakened in the first half of the 1990s, as had been widely reported; we present the first systematic data showing this. Data from a professional society placement service provide useful and inexpensive information on the employment market.