For calendar year 2020, there were 763 job postings for full time or part time pathologists at PathologyOutlines.com, which form the basis for the statistics below. This is a 9.7% decrease from the 845 ads posted in 2018 (click here), attributed to the marked drop in elective surgery from March to July 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We have excluded postings that were only for locum, Ph.D., residency, fellowship or non-pathologist positions. Of these postings, 717 were for 1 position, 29 were for 2 positions, 3 were for 3 positions and 14 were for an unspecified number of positions greater than 1.
Note: we use 2018 as the comparison year because data was not available for quarters 3 and 4 of 2019 due to installation of a new database. Totals in this report differ from the sum of the quarterly reports due to database inconsistencies regarding job renewals.
Of the 763 ads, 322 (42.2%) were for academic positions and 441 (57.8%) were for non-academic positions, compared to 45.0% academic during 2018. We define academic as an Assistant, Associate or Full Professor position at a university.
For 2020, job advertisements were posted from 48 of 50 U.S. states (all but Montana and Wyoming), plus General U.S.A., Puerto Rico, Washington, D.C., 8 Canadian provinces (not Quebec or Prince Edward Island), Germany, Ireland and Saudi Arabia. The states/provinces with the most ads were: New York (81), Florida (59), Pennsylvania (50), Ohio (46) and California (45).
Totals by regions: (click here for map of US regions):
Regions:
| USA - Midwest | 156 | 20.4% | 15.7% to 25.0% |
| USA - Northeast | 229 | 30.0% | 27.5% to 32.2% |
| USA - South | 223 | 29.2% | 26.9% to 31.7%% |
| USA - West | 116 | 15.2% | 13.5% to 15.4% |
| Canada | 33 | 4.3% | 2.8% to 5.7% |
| Other | 6 | 0.8% | 0% to 1.3% | Totals | 763 | 99.9% |
The last column shows mild variability by region in job postings during the four quarters of 2020.
Most postings (75.0%) required AP or AP/CP board certification/eligibility. Of the 127 ads which did not list a board certification requirement, 59 were academic and likely required board certification.
Minimum requirements (board certified / board eligible):
| AP | 127 | 16.6% |
| AP or CP | 28 | 3.7% |
| AP/CP | 446 | 58.4% |
| CP | 35 | 4.6% |
| Not indicated | 127 | 16.6% |
| Totals | 763 | 99.9% |
Most advertisements (91.0%) at least preferred a subspecialty, although for 204 (26.7%), it was not a requirement. For 2020, the most common subspecialties listed were cytopathology, hematopathology, GI / liver, gynecologic and breast pathology.
Required training (experience):
| Cytopathology | 159 | 20.8% |
| Hematopathology | 136 | 17.8% |
| GI / liver | 114 | 14.9% |
| Gynecologic | 108 | 14.2% |
| Breast | 105 | 13.8% |
| Dermatopathology | 75 | 9.8% |
| Molecular | 73 | 9.6% |
| GU | 66 | 8.7% |
| Medical Director | 61 | 8.0% |
| Transfusion | 55 | 7.2 % |
| Head & Neck | 42 | 5.5% |
| Chief / chair / director | 35 | 4.6% |
| Pulmonary | 35 | 4.6% |
| Pediatrics | 31 | 4.1% |
| Neuropathology | 31 | 4.1% |
| Microbiology | 25 | 3.3% |
| Bone & soft tissue | 23 | 3.0% |
| Informatics | 22 | 2.9% |
| Chemistry | 20 | 2.6% |
| Renal | 13 | 1.7% |
| Research | 12 | 1.6% |
| HLA / immunology | 11 | 1.4% |
| Education | 10 | 1.3% |
| Transplant | 10 | 1.3% |
| Immunohistochemistry | 9 | 1.2% |
| Autopsy | 8 | 1.0% |
| Coagulation | 6 | 0.8% |
| Cytogenics | 4 | 0.5% |
| Industry | 3 | 0.4% |
| Government | 3 | 0.4% |
| Forensics | 2 | 0.3% |
| Clinical (being phased out as a category) | 2 | 0.3% |
| Tissue bank | 1 | 0.1% |
Note: percentages are out of 763 ads and some positions listed multiple subspecialties.
Please contact Dr. Pernick with any questions or comments at Nat@PathologyOutlines.com. To post a job ad, email the text (up to 300 words, preferably in a Word format), your logo (optional) and your contact information to Ads@PathologyOutlines.com.
