Post Residency Physician Salarу

While most income figures mentioned on Doctor Salary Blog are often mid-career salaries, "exit surveys" from the outgoing batch of residents is a great way to gather information on the job market and starting salary offers for fresh-of-the-mill doctors. The University of Albany School of Public Health has been publishing workforce study reports for various occupations in the state of New York since 1997.

The 2010 report indicates a continued strong job market for physicians in US, with only 4% of the surveyed residents without jobs at the time of the survey.

Here are some of the median starting income offers ( pre-tax, base salaries + Bonuses).

Highest Starting Physician Salary:

Orthopedics : $259,700

Radiology : $257,000)

Anesthesiology: $242,100

Cardiology: $241,900

Lowest Starting Physician Salary:

Primary Care (Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics) : $142,000

Pediatrics: $110,000

More notable excerpts from the report:

"Generalists received approximately the same number of job offers as specialists"

"Among the specialty groups, the highest median starting incomes were facility based specialties (including anesthesiology, pathology, and radiology; $247,000) and surgical sub-specialties ($238,800). Surgery-general experienced the highest average annual increases in starting income from 2005 to 2010 (11%)."

"Individual specialties seeing the greatest average annual increase were dermatology, pulmonary disease, and pathology"

"Ophthalmology was the only specialty that did not experience an increase in median starting income between 2005 and 2010."

An indirect indicator of demand for a specialty could be the ability to find a job in a location of choice.

"The highest percentages of graduates having difficulty finding a satisfactory practice position were in physical medicine and rehabilitation (59%), geriatrics (56%), hematology/oncology (42%), and pediatric subspecialties (38%). Conversely, otolaryngology (0%), pulmonary disease (0%), gastroenterology (4%), and ophthalmology (11%) had the fewest respondents reporting difficulty"

Hmm...I thought there was a relatively good demand for geriatricians - or maybe that demand is to surge when the baby boomers start retiring, peaking in 2020-2030.

Number of Job Offers Received:

"The mean number of job offers received by graduates in 2010 was 3.64"

"Dermatology (6.53) + gastroenterology (5.60) graduates received the most job offers."

"Neurologists received fewer offers (2.00) than any other specialty."