Physician Employment

Physicians and surgeons held about 633,000 jobs in 2006; approximately 15 percent were self-employed. About half of wage–and-salary physicians and surgeons worked in offices of physicians, and 18 percent were employed by hospitals. Others practiced in Federal, State, and local governments, including colleges, universities, and professional schools; private colleges, universities, and professional schools; and outpatient care centers.

According to 2005 data from the American Medical Association (AMA), about one half of physicians in patient care were in primary care, but not in a subspecialty of primary care. (See table 1.)

Table 1. Percent distribution of active physicians in patient care by specialty, 2005
	Percent
Total:	100.0
Primary care	40.4
Family medicine and general practice	12.3
Internal medicine	15.0
Obstetrics & gynecology	5.5
Pediatrics	7.5

Specialties:	59.6
Anesthesiology	5.2
Psychiatry	5.1
Surgical specialties, selected	10.8
All other specialties	38.5
Footnotes: (NOTE) Source: American Medical Association, Physician Characteristics and Distribution in the US, 2007.

A growing number of physicians are partners or wage-and-salary employees of group practices. Organized as clinics or as associations of physicians, medical groups can more easily afford expensive medical equipment, can share support staff, and benefit from other business advantages.

According to the AMA, the New England and Middle Atlantic States have the highest ratio of physicians to population; the South Central and Mountain States have the lowest. D.O.s are more likely than M.D.s to practice in small cities and towns and in rural areas. M.D.s tend to locate in urban areas, close to hospitals and education centers.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2008-09 Edition