Nursing and Medical Officer Roles Stood Out in February 2025 Federal Hiring

Health-care roles remained one of the clearest signals in the February 2025 federal job archive. Nurse, series 0610, ranked second among all occupational series with 876 announcements, and Medical Officer, series 0602, appeared 282 times.

The pattern was not only about volume. Medical Officer also led the salary-ceiling table among larger salary-coded series, with an average normalized advertised maximum of about $333,042 and a median advertised maximum of $320,000 in the salary records used for the February analysis.

Health-care and adjacent roles in the February archive

Nurse roles were not an edge case. At 876 announcements, Nurse was ahead of Management and Program Analysis, Information Technology Management, Human Resources Management, Social Work, Medical Support Assistance and Medical Officer in the monthly ranking.

That mix points to a broad health-care hiring footprint. The archive included clinicians, patient-support positions, social work, physician assistants, dental officers and medical support roles. VHA was the largest single agency in the month with 3,603 announcements, and Military Treatment Facilities under DHA added 497.

Clinical roles and support roles move together

Medical hiring data can look deceptively simple if readers focus only on physicians or nurses. February's archive showed several layers at once. Nurse had high volume. Medical Officer had the strongest salary ceiling. Medical Support Assistance had 395 announcements. Social Work appeared 456 times.

Those categories support different parts of the federal health-care system. Some roles involve direct clinical care, while others keep clinics, hospitals, benefits settings or patient-facing offices functioning. The archive is not a staffing plan, but it does show how clinical and support work appeared together in public announcements.

Salary caveats are especially important in medical jobs

Federal medical salary ranges can include special pay, market pay, locality differences, recruitment incentives, part-time schedules, intermittent work, grades, boards and facility-specific needs. A maximum salary in an announcement is an upper bound in a public posting, not a guaranteed offer.

That caution does not erase the signal. Medical Officer still stands apart from most other series in average and median advertised maximum salary. But applicants should treat those figures as a map of advertised ceilings, then read the underlying announcement for qualifications, pay plan, grade and duty station.

What job seekers should watch

For applicants interested in federal health-care work, February 2025 suggests three useful search habits. First, search by series as well as keyword: 0610, 0602, 0679, 0185, 0603 and 0680 capture different role families. Second, search across agencies, because VHA is large but not the only federal health-care employer. Third, compare salary ranges carefully, especially when a posting spans several locations or appointment types.

Methodology and limitations

This article uses FederalHiringData historical USAJOBS archive records with close dates from Feb. 1 through Feb. 28, 2025. The analysis includes 18,991 archived announcements available in the February 2025 reconstruction.

The unit is an announcement record, not a hire, an application, or an onboarded employee. Agency, department, occupational series, salary and location fields reflect normalized announcement data where the underlying posting supplied enough information. Salary maximums are advertised maximums, not guaranteed pay. Location counts are location mentions and can exceed announcement counts when a posting lists more than one place.

The article is a historical snapshot as of February 28, 2025. It should not be read as a complete full-year trend or as a list of currently open jobs.

Sources: FederalHiringData HistoricalJobArchive; USAJOBS; USAJOBS API documentation. Photo: Samuel J. Hood Studio Collection / Australian National Maritime Museum via Unsplash, used under Public Domain and Unsplash License.