Healthcare professionals have been among the most in-demand this year. But, despite seeing the highest volume of job ads of any occupation in the United States, hiring demand has declined 25% over the past 6 months. In May, employers placed more than 115,000 job ads. In comparison, there were 87,000 ads placed by employers in the healthcare space over the past 30 days. This number is down 9% from the same time period in 2010, but recruiters will still face difficult recruiting conditions.

According to WANTED Analytics, which provides real-time business intelligence for the talent marketplace, the talent supply remains limited for healthcare occupations and has caused moderately challenging recruiting conditions. They expect recruiters will experience varying degrees of difficulty depending on the job’s location and specific occupation.

Some of the most commonly advertised healthcare job titles include Physical Therapist, Occupational Therapist, Registered Nurse (RN), Pharmacist, Speech Language Pathologist (SLP), and Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN). RNs were the occupation with the highest volume of job ads, with more than 38,000 ads posted over the past 30 days. However, this is an 11% decline from the same time period in 2010. SLPs and LPNs are the only of the above-mentioned occupations to experience increases in hiring demand, up 10% and 4% compared to the same 30-day period last year.

Across the U.S., there are about 11 potential candidates on average for every online job ad. However, recruiters are likely to see more difficult conditions for some occupations. For example, Physical Therapists and Occupational Therapists are likely to be the most challenging to source candidates for. Nationwide there are about 3.5 potential candidates in the workforce for every Physical Therapist job opening and about 2.1 candidates for every Occupational Therapist opening.

Metropolitan areas with the highest hiring demand for healthcare professionals over this 30-day period were New York, Los Angeles, and Cleveland. However, New York’s ad volume was down by 11 percent, Los Angeles also experienced a lower volume of job ads since last year and Cleveland’s volume remained relatively flat.

Economists say the main problem is a mismatch between available jobs and people who are qualified to fill them. Many of these specialized jobs were hard to fill even before the recession. But during downturns, recruiters tend to become even choosier, less willing to take financial risks on untested workers.