Public safetyRead at source, 24 September 2026

Firefighter Shortage: What the 2026 Data Shows, and How Departments Recruit

The firefighter shortage is real, but it isn't the shortage most headlines describe. The fall in the total number of U.S. firefighters is driven by volunteers. Career firefighters are at a high: NFPA estimates 383,000 in 2023, the largest figure in its series back to 1986, and about 1.75 per 1,000 people protected, close to the 1.73 of 1986. What changed is the workload and the applicant pool. Fire department calls rose from 10.8 million in 1980 to 42.7 million in 2024, mostly medical aid, and the U.S. Fire Administration says career departments that once had too many applicants now have to recruit. BLS projects about 26,800 openings a year for paid firefighters through 2035, most of them to replace people who retire or leave. Departments filling seats fastest test more often, hire before EMT certification, and recruit locally from their own volunteers, EMTs and veterans.

The firefighter shortage in numbers

Two national data sets describe paid firefighters. BLS counts jobs and projects openings. NFPA estimates career firefighters in municipal departments from its annual survey of fire departments, and separately counts volunteers. They define the job differently, so read each on its own terms.

BLS says many of the projected openings are expected to result from “the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire.” Growth of 4% over ten years is ordinary. Replacement is what keeps a department’s eligibility list moving.

Is there a firefighter shortage? What the data does and doesn’t show

Career headcount has not fallen

NFPA’s estimate of career firefighters rose from 361,100 in 2016 to 383,000 in 2023, the highest figure in a series that starts in 1986. Measured against the population protected, career staffing has barely moved in four decades: 1.73 per 1,000 people in 1986, 1.75 in 2023. Nationally, there are not fewer career firefighters than before.

The total has fallen, because of volunteers

NFPA’s total of career and volunteer firefighters was 1,018,100 in 2023, against 1,148,850 in 2008. The volunteer estimate fell from 827,150 to 635,100 over the same years. The National Volunteer Fire Council’s fact sheet reports that the number of volunteers reached a low in 2023. That is a real shortage, and it lands on career departments too: in combination departments and in mutual aid, fewer volunteers means more calls for paid crews. Our volunteer firefighter recruitment page covers that side.

The work has grown much faster than the workforce

NFPA counted 10,819,000 fire department calls in 1980 and 42,687,000 in 2024. Medical aid calls went from 5,045,000 to 28,226,500. Fires went the other way, from 2,988,000 to 1,388,000. BLS notes that “firefighters will also continue to respond to medical emergencies,” and in NFPA’s 2020 profile 46% of departments provided basic life support and 17% advanced life support. A department with the same number of firefighters per resident as in 1986 is running a very different call load.

Fewer people are applying

The USFA’s 2024 workgroup report states the change plainly: “Historically, the fire service hasn’t had to recruit and retain members actively. There were usually too many applicants for career positions,” but “that has changed, and dramatically so over the past few years, due to retirements, time demands, and the effects of the pandemic.” It lists the consequences as “response time delays, closed stations, firefighter safety issues, mandatory overtime and increased time demands on volunteers, and financial impacts on municipalities.” There is no national count of applicants per vacancy, so this part of the shortage is reported by departments rather than measured.

Why is there a firefighter shortage?

1. Medical calls grew the job

   Medical aid is now most of what fire departments respond to. BLS says firefighters typically need “a high school diploma and training in emergency medical services.” Requirements vary by jurisdiction, but where EMT certification is expected at hire it adds a credential most applicants don’t already have.

2. Retirements and the volunteer decline

   The USFA names retirements first among the causes. In combination departments, a shrinking volunteer roster pushes more shifts onto paid staff at the same time.

3. The schedule and the hiring process filter people out

   BLS describes 24-hour shifts followed by 48 or 72 hours off, with common overtime. Applicants must typically be at least 18, hold a driver’s license, pass a medical exam and drug screen, then complete “a few months of training at fire academies.” A process with an annual test date loses candidates to employers who hire in weeks.

4. The pool is narrow

   In NFPA’s 2020 profile, 17,200 career firefighters, 5%, were women. A recruiting approach that only reaches people who always wanted the job leaves most of the local workforce unasked.

Career, combination and volunteer departments

The registry and NFPA use four department types, and the shortage looks different in each.

The registry covered 27,166 departments, about 92% of those estimated to exist, staffed by 1,058,800 active firefighters, of whom 34.8% were career, 52.6% volunteer and 12.6% paid-per-call. Career and mostly-career departments are a minority of departments but, in NFPA’s 2020 profile, they protected 70% of the U.S. population. For a combination department, the practical point is that the paid and volunteer shortages are one problem: every volunteer who stops responding is overtime for a paid crew, and every volunteer who stays is a candidate for the next paid opening.

Career firefighter recruitment

Recruiting for a paid seat is a different job from recruiting volunteers. A volunteer department asks for time; a career department asks a candidate to leave a job they already have, pass a written and physical test, a medical exam and drug screen, and complete “a few months of training at fire academies,” in BLS’s words, before the first full shift. Local government employs 87% of paid firefighters, so most career hiring runs on public-sector test calendars and civil service rules.

Three things set career recruiting apart. The candidate is usually employed, so the department competes on pay, pension and the 24-on, 48- or 72-off schedule against the job the candidate already has. The test calendar sets the pace: a department that tests once a year recruits once a year. And the credential question, whether you hire before or after EMT, decides how large the pool is. Police departments face the same arithmetic with their own multi-step process; our page on police recruitment maps where applicants drop out between first interest and the academy, and most of it applies to a fire department’s hiring steps.

Firefighter recruitment strategies that fit the data

Hire before the credential

• Sponsor recruits through EMT and the academy with pay from day one. It turns a credentialed hire into an entry-level one and reaches people who would never search “firefighter jobs.”
• Recruit laterals deliberately. A certified firefighter-EMT from another department is months closer to riding a shift than a new recruit.
• Use the apprenticeship and cadet route. The USFA workgroup recommends supporting “apprenticeship, cadet, internship, and supplemental education programs” and notes IAFF work with the U.S. Department of Labor on a national apprenticeship program.

Shorten the gap between interest and offer

• Test more often than once a year. A candidate waiting months for a written exam is a candidate another department or employer hires first.
• Run steps in parallel where your civil service rules allow, and make the conditional job offer as early as the law lets you, since medical exams come after it.
• Tell every applicant the date of the next step. A short text after each stage costs nothing; our recruiting text message templates are written for that.

Recruit from the people already near the station

• Your own volunteers, paid-per-call members and EMS staff know the department and much of the job.
• Working EMTs and paramedics at private ambulance services and hospitals; see the EMT shortage page for that workforce, and our EMT and paramedic job descriptions for the credential levels.
• Veterans, including military medics; the USFA recommends exploring ways to bridge EMS training for medics while they are still serving. Our page on hiring veterans covers the programs.

Fund the seats

FEMA’s SAFER grants fund fire departments “to help them increase or maintain the number of trained, ‘front line’ firefighters,” with a hiring category and a volunteer recruitment and retention category. Check FEMA’s current notice of funding for dates and conditions. Our workforce development grants page lists other sources.

Recruiting firefighters with local Facebook and Instagram ads

Most of the people a department needs are working somewhere else in the county and have never been asked. Social job ads reach adults within commuting distance by location rather than by search, which suits a department that recruits locally.

• Lead with what candidates compare: starting pay, paid academy, the shift pattern (24 on, 48 or 72 off), pension, and whether you sponsor EMT.
• Name the next test date and how to register. Our guide on how to promote a hiring event covers timing for open testing days.
• Use your own firefighters in the creative, not stock images.
• Keep the first form short: name, phone, EMT status, and the legal minimums. Collect the full application once they’re committed.

In Boostpoint’s 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark of 891 managed campaigns, the median cost per applicant was $13.88, and what happens after the click explained 70% of the difference in cost between campaigns. Campaigns where under 5% of clickers finished the form paid $53.77 per applicant; those converting 20–35% paid $4.41. See the benchmark data. The same local approach works for other public-safety roles; see the police officer shortage and correctional officer shortage pages, and our 911 dispatcher interview questions.

What this page cannot tell you

It can’t tell you how short your department is. National counts describe the country, NFPA’s estimates come from a sample survey with a margin of error, and there is no national measure of applicants per vacancy or of mandatory overtime. Your shortage depends on your pay against the next department, your testing calendar, how many of your firefighters can retire in the next three years, and how many volunteers still respond. What the data does establish is the shape: career headcount has kept pace with population, the call load has not, and volunteers are declining. For the wider picture across industries, see our page on the labor shortage.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, firefighters (last modified 14 September 2026); NFPA number of firefighters (1986–2023), U.S. Fire Department Profile 2020 and fire department calls (1980–2024); USFA National Fire Department Registry Summary, January 2024; USFA recruitment and retention workgroup report, October 2023–August 2024. Benchmark: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, 891 managed Meta campaigns (1,334 campaign-months).