Clinical Lab Worker Shortage: Addressing the Gap

Breaking Down the U.S. Clinical Lab Worker Shortage

The scarcity is being felt in hospitals and laboratories across the U.S., but in certain disciplines, the effect is more dramatic. The average rate of vacancies varies among the several lab departments that participated in an ASCP survey. According to the survey results, Blood Bank had the highest staff vacancy rate at 18.9 percent while cytogenetics had the lowest at 7.5 percent. Other departments with high rates include the chemistry/toxicology department at 18 percent and the core lab at 18.7 percent.

“Rural areas are definitely feeling it, and any of the states that don’t have many training programs are also likely experiencing a harder time getting workers,” Cremeans said. This is due to workers’ tendency to find employment near their alma mater universities, on top of a general preference among the workforce for jobs in or near urban areas.

But the problem also affects some highly populated zones. “For example, Florida and Arizona, where you have more individuals of greater age, the number of individuals seeking healthcare has increased, and that’s probably more taxing for those states to provide those lab services.”

Cremeans added that in her state of North Carolina, there are only four programs in clinical laboratory science, which she says is not enough to meet the demand for scientist-level practitioners in the state.

So, what is at the root of this pervasive problem? A few factors are coming together to make the perfect storm.

Reason #1: A Decrease in the Number of Academic Programs

Despite the fact that the shortage of lab personnel has been a growing problem for decades, there has been a steady decrease in the number of medical laboratory science (MLS) and medical laboratory technician (MLT) programs in the U.S. since 1990.

In the year 2000, there were 263 MLS programs and 248 MLT programs. Currently, there are 256 MLS and 244 MLT programs in 2025. Zooming out to look at a wider timespan, there has been a decrease in the number of accredited training programs between 1990 and 2025, according to the most recent data available.

This has obviously contributed to the shortage of qualified workers in the job market. Considering the long-known deficit, why would universities eliminate medical laboratory programs? Cremeans weighed in: “Basically, they are expensive to offer, so when it comes to cuts and looking at budgets … some of those cuts have been made based on how much it costs to run them. That, and they may not have high enough enrollment numbers.”

That leads to another factor that is more difficult to quantify: the effort (or lack thereof) of high schools and universities to introduce the career path to students.

“It goes back to promoting the profession and students having an awareness that this exists as a career,” Cremeans said. “It’s harder for some programs to recruit students into their programs.”

Medical Laboratory Professionals Week is an excellent way that clinical laboratory workers can be brought into the spotlight. Employers and professionals in the field can plan events for Lab Week to specifically inform and recruit high school and university students into this career.

The American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science and the Committee for Educational Programs and Initiatives (CEPI) have created a recruitment toolkit that can be utilized just for these purposes. Materials include videos and brochures to get students excited about this field.

Reason #2: A Retiring Workforce

Another contributing factor, which is not unique to the healthcare industry, is the aging workforce—specifically, the Baby Boomer generation.

“Many of them sort of held on a bit longer because of the economy and such, but they are now entering retirement,” Cremeans said, “So, that’s caused a reduction in the workforce.”

Labs have already begun to experience the effect, but the Baby Boomer exodus will continue to be felt. According to the aforementioned ASCP survey on vacancies in laboratories, the average retirement rate has decreased from 2020. The retirement rates for supervisors had increased for the following departments: Anatomic Pathology, Blood Bank, Cytogenetics, LIS/PI/QA, Molecular Biology/Molecular Pathology/Molecular Diagnostics, Phlebotomy, and Send-outs. The retirement rates in Chemistry/Toxicology, Core Laboratory, Cytology, Hematology/Coagulation, Histology, Immunology, Microbiology, and Specimen Processing had decreased.

Reason #3: New Training Requirements

There have been exciting new developments in diagnostic technology, leading to improvements in preventive screening. These advancements promote faster detection and results, which is great for patients, but it also means that certain workers need to be armed with new knowledge and skill sets that weren’t expected in years past.

“For example, right now there is a lot of testing that utilizes molecular analysis, looking at DNA and RNA, a much more specialized area of testing—something that individuals who were trained 20 or 30 years ago didn’t learn a lot about in their education programs,” Cremeans said. “So, it’s really kind of developing the need for a little bit of a different skill set in some areas to be able to perform the testing and interpret the results.”

When institutions are unable to find employees capable of handling new procedures, the current staff often end up working longer hours and/or having an expanded range of duties. “These expanded duties can include cross-training in other disciplines within the laboratory,” the ASCLS said. “Although cross-trained staff may feel more valued, cross-training to fill vacancies has the potential to dilute in-depth core knowledge and expertise necessary for solving complex issues.”

In essence, the added pressure to rise to the occasion can become a burden for employees, who are already spread thin, and may have a potentially negative effect on the efficiency of the lab.

How to Help Resolve the Medical Lab Worker Shortage

According to respondents of the ASCP survey, 78.4 percent of lab managers said they lose personnel to better salary offers from other employers; 76.8 percent said it is also attributable to an increase in competition for well-trained personnel; and 60.7 percent said there were not enough applicants with the necessary certification, education, or skills to perform the work.

To attract applicants, institutions are offering more generous benefits packages, including health and retirement benefits, premium pay for overtime, holidays, or weekends, and tuition reimbursements. But Cremeans said there’s something else that labs can do to attract applicants: offering internships.

“There are some labs that are more than happy to host students and train them as part of their education, and there are other labs that can’t do it for whatever reason—personnel, maybe they don’t have enough staffing—or they’re just not interested in working with students. So, that can cause limitations when it comes to the clinical location requirements of these programs,” Cremeans said.

“One of the things that the academic programs try to get across to the hospitals and the clinical sites is to look at this as a return on investment. If you put time into helping train a student, it’s likely that they will turn around and accept a job position with you.”

Another potential boon to the staffing crisis would be to attract candidates from related fields of study. James Freeman, the former vice president of research and development for laboratory diagnostics at Siemens Healthineers, suggests that students from similar educational tracks should consider careers in laboratory sciences.

“It is a great time for STEM [science, math, engineering, and mathematics] students to consider a career in diagnostics,” he said, naming the fast-evolving field of in-vitro diagnostics (IVD) as a particularly good fit for graduates of STEM programs.

Candidates with bachelor’s degrees in various sciences are often eligible for these jobs and may not even know it. In states where certification is not a requirement, labs may hire staff with bachelor’s degrees in fields like biology or chemistry without clinical laboratory experience and opt to provide on-the-job training, the ASCLS said.

In fact, as of June 2025, the only 10 states that require an MLS and/or MLT license are California, Florida, Hawaii, Montana, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Tennessee, Louisiana, and West Virginia. In others, lab technicians and technologists do not have to obtain such licensing.

So, perhaps the perceived crisis is not as dire as it may seem. But there should be an effort on the part of high schools, universities, and career centers to educate students and recent graduates on this in-demand career path, in addition to labs and hospitals investing in students.

“One of the things a lot of individuals in the field will speak about is the lack of recognition of this really being a profession,” Cremeans said. “I think there’s just a lack of awareness. People may not even know [the career path] exists.”

To prospective students or science-related degree holders, Cremeans recommends looking into roles within medical labs. “The information we produce in the lab is essential to physicians and other healthcare providers to make decisions for their patients, and how to best care for them, so we really do provide important information and play a significant role on the healthcare team. It’s very rewarding, interesting work and it’s meaningful.”