CT Vacancy Just Hit an All-Time High

By the RadiologyJobs Editorial Team · Last updated: July 3, 2026

Nearly one in five budgeted CT technologist jobs in the United States is sitting open right now. The 2025 ASRT Radiologic Sciences Staffing and Workplace Survey puts the computed tomography vacancy rate at 19.4%, which the American Society of Radiologic Technologists calls an all-time high. It was 17.7% two years earlier. CT now leads every imaging modality the survey tracks, ahead of MRI (17.4%) and radiography (15.6%).

In short: CT technologist vacancy hit an all-time high of 19.4% in 2025, according to the ASRT Radiologic Sciences Staffing and Workplace Survey, up from 17.7% two years earlier. CT now leads every imaging modality, ahead of MRI at 17.4% and radiography at 15.6%, reflecting a structural workforce shortage rather than a temporary dip.

That number is easy to read past. It shouldn't be. A 19.4% vacancy rate means the scanner is bought, the room is built, the referrals are coming, and the person who runs the exam is missing. For a hospital, that is unread volume and unbilled revenue. For a CT technologist, it is the strongest hand this profession has held in a generation.

How does CT vacancy compare to MRI and radiography?

CT sits at the front of the line, but the pressure is broad across imaging. Here is how the three tracked modalities compare in the 2025 survey.

Imaging modality	2025 vacancy rate	Note
Computed tomography (CT)	19.4%	All-time high; up from 17.7% two years earlier
MRI	17.4%	Second-highest tracked modality
Radiography	15.6%	Above its 2020 baseline

Source: 2025 ASRT Radiologic Sciences Staffing and Workplace Survey.

What's driving the record CT technologist shortage?

This is a workforce story, not a technology story, and it has been building for years. A few forces are stacking on top of each other.

• The workforce is aging faster than it is being replaced. The average radiologic technologist is 47.4 years old. A large share of the current CT workforce is within 15 to 20 years of retirement, and the training pipeline is not producing new techs at the pace it takes to backfill them.
• CT volume keeps climbing. Diagnostic imaging volume is growing roughly 3 to 4% a year, pushed by an aging population and expanded protocols like low-dose lung screening. More scans, on more scanners, with fewer people qualified to run them.
• The pipeline is narrow by design. CT is a post-primary certification. You do not graduate into it; you train into it after you are already a working radiographer. That extra step is exactly what makes CT techs valuable, and exactly what keeps supply from responding quickly when demand spikes.
• Burnout compounds the gap. When a department runs short, the techs who stay absorb the overflow. Heavier call, longer shifts, and less flexibility push some of the most experienced people toward travel work, adjacent modalities, or out of the field. Every departure widens the same gap that caused it.

None of these is a temporary post-pandemic wobble. They are structural, and the 2025 survey confirms every imaging modality remains above its 2020 baseline. CT simply sits at the front of the line.

What does the record CT vacancy mean for imaging employers?

A record vacancy rate changes the math on hiring in three concrete ways.

The cost of an open role is real and it accrues daily. An idle CT scanner does not generate reads, does not bill, and does not clear a backlog. Every week a role stays open is a week of deferred revenue and a longer queue for the patients and referrers waiting on it. The vacancy is not a line item you can defer. It is already costing you.

Time-to-fill is stretching, and the usual levers are crowded. When nearly a fifth of CT roles nationally are open at once, every employer is fishing the same shrinking pool at the same time. Posting a role and waiting is no longer a strategy. The departments that win are the ones reaching qualified techs who are not actively scrolling listings, and reaching them before a competitor does.

Compensation pressure is only part of the answer. Pay matters, and in a 19.4% vacancy market it will keep rising. But CT techs weighing a move increasingly look past the top-line number to schedule, call burden, modality mix, growth path, and whether a role is what it claims to be. Employers who are specific and honest about those things convert better than employers who lead with a signing bonus and stay vague on the rest.

What does the record CT vacancy mean for CT technologists?

If you run CT scanners for a living, the survey is describing your leverage in plain numbers.

• Demand is broad, not local. A 19.4% national vacancy rate means the shortage is not confined to one region or one health system. Your skill set is portable, and the market for it is wide.
• Multi-modality credentials command a premium. Techs certified across CT and MRI, or CT and mammography, sit at the intersection of the tightest markets. If you have been weighing a second certification, the vacancy data is the business case.
• Mobility is a real option. Travel and contract work, permanent moves, and step-ups into lead or specialty roles are all more available in a shortage than in a glut. Leverage is only leverage if you use it deliberately, on the terms that matter to you rather than the first offer in your inbox.

Leverage cuts both ways, and the healthiest version of this market is one where techs can find roles that genuinely fit and employers can fill them without burning out the people they already have. That is the gap worth closing, on both sides.

Is the CT technologist shortage getting worse?

The pressure behind the CT number is not going to release on its own. The workforce keeps aging, imaging volume keeps climbing, and the training pipeline moves at the speed it moves. Expect CT to stay near the top of the vacancy chart for the next several survey cycles, which makes how employers and technologists connect the variable that is actually in play.

This is the gap RadiologyJobs is built to close. As an intelligent career advocacy platform built exclusively for the imaging workforce, RadiologyJobs is designed to match the right CT technologist to the right role faster and with less noise, so employers spend less time on an open scanner and techs spend less time sifting through roles that were never a fit. A 19.4% vacancy rate is a hard number. The work now is making the match better, for the people who read the scans and the people who run them.

Frequently asked questions

What is the current CT technologist vacancy rate?

The CT technologist vacancy rate reached 19.4% in the 2025 ASRT Radiologic Sciences Staffing and Workplace Survey, which the American Society of Radiologic Technologists calls an all-time high. That is up from 17.7% two years earlier, and CT now leads every imaging modality the survey tracks.

Which imaging modality has the highest vacancy rate?

Computed tomography leads every imaging modality in the 2025 ASRT survey at a 19.4% vacancy rate. MRI follows at 17.4% and radiography at 15.6%. Every modality the survey tracks remains above its 2020 baseline, which points to a structural shortage rather than a temporary post-pandemic dip.

Why is there a CT technologist shortage?

Several forces stack together. The workforce is aging, with the average radiologic technologist at 47.4 years old, while imaging volume grows roughly 3 to 4% a year. CT is a post-primary certification, so supply cannot respond quickly, and departmental burnout pushes experienced techs toward travel work or out of the field.

What does the CT vacancy record mean for CT technologists?

A 19.4% national vacancy rate means demand is broad rather than local, so a CT tech's skill set is portable. Multi-modality credentials, such as CT paired with MRI or mammography, command a premium. Travel, permanent moves, and step-ups into lead or specialty roles are all more available in a shortage than a glut.

Source: 2025 ASRT Radiologic Sciences Staffing and Workplace Survey. Reporting corroborated by DotMed and AuntMinnie.