Veterinary hiringRead at source, 24 September 2026

Veterinary Shortage: What the 2026 Data Shows, and How Practices Hire

The evidence points to a shortage of veterinary support staff more clearly than a shortage of veterinarians. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 9% growth from 2025 to 2035 for veterinarians, veterinary technicians and veterinary assistants alike, but the openings are concentrated in support roles: about 13,400 a year for technologists and technicians and 23,200 for assistants and laboratory animal caretakers, against about 3,100 for veterinarians. An AVMA-commissioned analysis published in 2024 concluded that graduates from existing U.S. veterinary colleges are likely enough to meet demand for veterinarians to 2035, which disputes the widely quoted shortage forecasts. Where the shortage is well documented is in rural and food-animal practice, and in credentialed technicians who leave or are underused: in NAVTA's 2024 survey only 36% of respondents felt fully utilized. For a practice, that makes hiring mostly a pay, scope and retention problem, not only a pipeline one.

The veterinary shortage in numbers

Three BLS occupations make up most of a clinical team. All three are projected to grow faster than the average for all occupations. The difference between them is in how many seats open each year, and most of those openings come from people leaving rather than from new jobs. BLS says many technician openings result from “the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire.”

Two things stand out. Assistants and technicians hold about the same number of jobs (132,100 and 131,400), yet BLS projects 23,200 openings a year for assistants against 13,400 for technicians. Our reading is that this is churn in the least-credentialed, lowest-paid role showing up in the projections. And almost everyone in all three occupations works in the same kind of business, so the practice competing for your technician is usually another practice in the same town.

One caution when you read other sources: the AVMA counts 133,475 U.S. veterinarians as of 31 December 2025, while BLS counts 91,100 jobs in the veterinarian occupation. They measure different things, so don’t set one against the other to size a gap.

Is there a veterinarian shortage? The evidence on both sides

This is the most disputed part of the subject, and it’s worth knowing both positions before you quote a figure to your partners or your bank.

The shortage case

The best-known forecast is an analysis commissioned by Mars Veterinary Health, which the AVMA reports as saying the nation will need as many as 55,000 additional veterinarians by 2030. Practice owners who have tried to hire an associate recently will recognize the experience it describes, and BLS projects demand to keep growing, driven by “increases in consumers’ pet-related spending, expanding treatment options, and a growing, aging pet population.”

The case against a national shortage

An analysis by Brakke Consulting, commissioned by the AVMA and reported in October 2024, found that “the number of graduates from existing U.S. veterinary colleges is likely enough to meet demand to 2035” and that the projections “do not justify a conclusion of overall excess capacity or capacity shortage by 2030 or 2035.” The AVMA’s workforce position goes further, arguing that “claims of crisis-level shortages, based largely on questionable math” have driven policy proposals. It points to supply already coming: three new colleges added, two colleges that doubled their cohorts, and 10 more in development.

Even the AVMA’s own economist did not claim the market is smooth everywhere: “I don’t want to say there aren’t regional or practice type-specific frictions or problems where supply doesn’t equal demand, but over the long term, I don’t expect that to persist forever.”

Where both sides agree: rural and food-animal practice

The AVMA reports that in 2025 the USDA declared 243 rural veterinary shortage areas in 46 states, “the highest number of shortage areas ever,” and estimates that in 2024 only 3.4% of U.S. veterinarians (3,424 of 130,415) worked in food animal practice. Companion animal practice, meanwhile, grew from 61% of veterinarians in 2001 to 73% in 2023. The USDA’s Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program may repay up to $40,000 of student loan debt a year for veterinarians who commit to at least three years in a designated shortage area. If you run a mixed or large-animal practice in one of those areas, point candidates to it.

The vet tech shortage: pipeline, pay and utilization

Credentialed technicians are the hardest part of the team to replace quickly. BLS notes that technologists and technicians typically “must pass a credentialing exam and must become registered, licensed, or certified, depending on the state in which they work,” usually after a two-year associate’s degree for technicians. That makes the supply slow to respond, and three sources point to why it isn’t growing faster.

• Fewer students are enrolling. In a 2023 survey of 82 educators and administrators at U.S. veterinary technology programs, published in 2024, 43% reported a decrease in student enrollment. Among the 35 who reported a decrease, 57% cited potential students not convinced that being credentialed would change their job duties compared with non-credentialed work, and 53% cited students who did not expect credentialing to bring a substantial increase in pay.
• Credentialed technicians feel underused. In NAVTA’s 2024 demographic survey, only 36% of respondents felt fully utilized in their roles, and 48% said there was little differentiation between the responsibilities of credentialed technicians and uncredentialed support staff.
• Pay and satisfaction are falling behind. In the same survey 39% cited low pay as the most significant challenge, and only 8% reported being “extremely satisfied” with their jobs in 2024, down from 25% in 2022. NAVTA also reported that 88% of respondents had experienced compassion fatigue.

Put together, the technician shortage looks less like a lack of people who could do the work and more like a profession whose members, and whose would-be students, don’t see the credential paying off in duties or wages. That is something an individual practice can change.

Why is there a veterinary shortage?

1. Demand grew

   BLS attributes projected growth to pet-related spending, expanding treatment options and an aging pet population. More treatment per animal means more technician and assistant hours per visit.

2. People leave the team

   The American Animal Hospital Association’s 2024 “Stay, Please” study, as reported by the AVMA, put the average annual turnover rate among veterinary team members at 23%, surveying more than 14,000 people in small animal practice. Every departure reopens a seat.

3. The credential doesn’t always pay

   The BLS median for technicians in veterinary services is $47,170, against $52,200 in educational services. When the credential brings little difference in duties or pay, technicians move sideways and students choose other programs.

4. Veterinarians concentrate in companion practice

   The rural and food-animal shortage reflects where veterinarians choose to work. It is a distribution problem that national totals hide.

Which of these matters most is disputed for veterinarians. For support staff, all four sources above point the same way.

How veterinary practices can hire through the shortage

Decide which roles need a credential

Not every seat on the team needs a credentialed technician, and not every credentialed technician should be doing assistant work. Map the tasks your state’s veterinary practice act reserves for credentialed technicians, then hire to that map.

A career ladder from kennel to assistant to credentialed technician gives entry-level hires a reason to stay and gives you technicians who already know your practice. Name it in the job ad.

Use credentialed technicians to full scope

The AVMA’s practice management guidance says “the higher the ratio of non-DVM staff to DVMs, the more efficient the practice,” and links engaged credentialed technicians to higher revenue. NAVTA’s finding that only 36% of technicians feel fully utilized is the opportunity. If your technicians induce and monitor anesthesia, place catheters, run dentals and take radiographs within your state’s rules, say so in the posting. It is the thing credentialed candidates most want to know and most rarely see.

Pay for the credential, and publish it

Among educators who saw enrollment fall, the second most-cited reason was that students don’t expect the credential to pay. A published credential differential answers that directly. Put the hourly range in the first line of the ad and check it against the local market with our market-rate method. When you raise starting pay, check whether you have created wage compression with the technicians you already employ, because they will notice first. Several states and cities require a pay range in postings anyway; see pay transparency laws by state.

Treat retention as recruiting

In AAHA’s study, the factors people planning to leave most wanted changed were “fair compensation, appreciation for work, and career development.” Those are cheaper than a vacancy. Our pages on employee retention strategies, retention bonuses and first-90-days turnover cover how to structure each.

Be honest about the schedule

BLS notes technicians may work evenings, weekends or holidays, and that some assistants work part time. State the rotation, the closing time and whether there is on-call. A candidate who finds out about Saturday shifts in the interview is a candidate you spent money reaching for nothing.

Recruiting vet techs and assistants with social job ads

Most working technicians aren’t on job boards. They are at another practice, and they see job ads in their Facebook or Instagram feed between appointments. That audience is reachable by location, which suits a practice hiring within commuting distance.

Our 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark doesn’t report veterinary roles as their own role family, so the fair reference is the whole set: across 891 managed campaigns the median cost per applicant was $13.88. What decided the cost was the application. Campaigns where under 5% of clickers finished the form paid $53.77 per applicant; campaigns converting 20–35% paid $4.41. For a technician posting that means pay range, credential differential, scope and schedule in the ad, then a form with three or four questions: credential status and state, years in practice, shifts they can work. Call the same day. See our 2026 benchmark data for the full distribution and how Boostpoint runs social job advertising.

What this page cannot tell you

It can’t tell you how short your market is. National projections describe the country, and the veterinarian forecasts disagree with each other. The surveys quoted here describe the people who answered them: NAVTA’s members and respondents, the 82 educators in the program survey, the small-animal staff in AAHA’s study. What the evidence does support is the shape: support-staff openings far outnumber veterinarian openings, credentialed technicians are leaving or underused, and the practices that pay for the credential and use it will have an easier time hiring. For the wider picture across industries, see our page on the labor shortage.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook (May 2025 wages, 2025–35 projections; pages last modified 27 August 2026); AVMA; NAVTA 2024 demographic survey release (3 April 2025); Kogan and Jensen, Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 2024; USDA NIFA. Benchmark: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, 891 managed Meta campaigns (1,334 campaign-months).