Where the Physician Assistant Jobs Are: States, Metros, Settings and Pay (BLS May 2025)

One state holds almost one physician assistant job in eight, one metropolitan area holds one in ten, and one kind of employer, the physician's office, holds more than half of them. This guide answers "where are the physician assistant jobs" with the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for May 2025, the newest state, metro and industry employment data the government publishes for physician assistants, and the Occupational Outlook Handbook for what the next decade looks like. Every count, concentration and wage below is a BLS estimate; nothing is taken from job postings or salary sites.

The short answer

• By headcount, the most physician assistant jobs are in New York (19,140), California (13,600), Texas (10,110), Florida (9,310), Pennsylvania (9,020) and North Carolina (7,490). Together those six states employ 68,670 of the nation's 162,150 physician assistants, 42.3% of the total.
• By concentration, meaning PA jobs relative to the size of the state's whole economy, the leaders are Alaska (location quotient 2.07), Connecticut (2.02), New York (1.90), Delaware (1.69) and Rhode Island (1.56). New York is the one state that leads on both measures.
• By metro, New York (16,800) is in a class of its own; Atlanta (3,970), Los Angeles (3,890), Boston (3,550) and Philadelphia (3,390) follow at about a quarter of its size or less.
• By setting, physicians' offices employ 86,830 physician assistants, 53.5% of all of them, followed by general hospitals (40,850) and outpatient care centers (14,980).
• Pay: the national mean is $141,280 a year ($67.92 an hour) and the median $135,880; the best-paying states are California ($169,110), Washington ($164,430) and New Jersey ($162,100).
• Outlook: employment is projected to grow 21% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the 3% average for all occupations, with about 11,500 openings a year.

Open physician assistant postings on hospital and health-system career sites are listed on the physician assistant jobs hub, and every state in the tables below links to its own page there.

Which states have the most physician assistant jobs?

The ten states with the largest physician assistant workforces account for 55.7% of the national total, and the top four alone (New York, California, Texas and Florida) for 32.2%. The location quotient compares a state's share of PA jobs with the national average (1.00), so a state at 1.43 has 43% more physician assistant jobs, relative to the size of its economy, than the country as a whole.

Two things stand out. New York is not merely the biggest market; it is also one of the densest, with 90% more physician assistant jobs relative to its size than the national average, and it pays $155,150 on average, fifth in the country. California, Texas and Florida are big because they are big: each has fewer PA jobs per unit of economy than the national average (location quotients of 0.72, 0.69 and 0.90), so the large headcount comes with proportionately more competition for it. Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Michigan are the opposite case, mid-sized states where the profession is unusually well established, with location quotients of 1.37 to 1.45; the trade-off is pay, which in all three sits below the national mean.

Where physician assistant jobs are most concentrated

If the question is not "where are the most jobs" but "where is a PA license most in demand", concentration is the better measure, and the answer is the Northeast and a handful of small Western states. Nine of the twelve densest states are small ones, which is partly why their headcounts look modest: Connecticut's 3,570 physician assistants are a small number nationally but twice the national density, and Alaska's 700 are the highest concentration in the country. Unlike many allied professions, the dense states for PAs are mostly well-paid ones too: Alaska, Connecticut, New York, Delaware, Rhode Island and New Hampshire all pay above the national mean.

At the other end, Mississippi (0.26), Alabama (0.42), Kansas (0.59), Illinois (0.60), Arkansas (0.62) and Indiana (0.63) have the fewest physician assistant jobs relative to their size. Mississippi and Alabama are also the two lowest-paying states ($106,820 and $110,860), which is unusual: in most of the country a thin PA market does not mean a cheap one. Illinois is the surprise on the list, the sixth most populous state with only 3,790 physician assistants, well behind Michigan, Georgia, Ohio and New Jersey.

Physician assistant jobs in every state

All 50 states and the District of Columbia, ranked by the number of physician assistants employed in May 2025. Each state name links to its physician assistant jobs page on the job board.

Which metros have the most physician assistant jobs?

Physician assistant employment is more concentrated in the biggest cities than most clinical professions, because so much of it sits in specialty practices and academic medical centers. The 25 major metropolitan areas below hold 72,520 PA jobs, 44.7% of the national total, and the New York metro alone holds 16,800, more than one in ten physician assistants in the country and more than the next four metros combined. Pittsburgh, Hartford, Buffalo and Milwaukee rank far above their population because of the health systems anchored there. Metros with live postings on the job board link to their page.

Below the top 25, Orlando (1,200), Columbus (1,140), Portland (1,110), Jacksonville (1,100), Sacramento (1,070), Buffalo (1,040), San Jose (1,030), Oklahoma City (1,020) and Riverside-San Bernardino (1,020) each employ about a thousand physician assistants. The gap between New York and everywhere else is the single most important fact on this page for a job seeker who is willing to move: the New York metro has more physician assistant jobs than the whole of California.

Which settings employ the most physician assistants?

Where physician assistant jobs are is as much a question of setting as of geography. Five industries employ 149,880 PAs, 92.4% of the total, and the largest by a wide margin is the physician's office, which includes the single-specialty and multi-specialty group practices where most PAs in surgery, orthopedics, dermatology and primary care work. General hospitals employ one physician assistant in four. The wage column shows that the biggest employer is not the best payer: the federal government, employment services (locum and staffing agencies) and outpatient care centers all pay well above the $141,280 national mean, and physicians' offices a little below it.

The practical reading: in every state, the fastest route to a physician assistant job is a group practice or a hospital-owned clinic, and the hospital jobs many new graduates picture are a quarter of the market. The outpatient care center, which includes urgent care, surgical centers and community health centers, is the setting that combines a large headcount with the highest pay among the big employers.

What physician assistants earn

The national mean annual wage for physician assistants in May 2025 was $141,280, or $67.92 an hour, and the median $135,880. The lowest-paid tenth earned under $99,380 a year and the highest-paid tenth over $190,280, a narrower spread than for physicians but a wide one for a single license: specialty, setting and state together move pay by more than $90,000. By state, California ($169,110), Washington ($164,430), New Jersey ($162,100), Oregon ($155,300) and New York ($155,150) pay the most on average, and Mississippi ($106,820), Alabama ($110,860), Georgia ($112,090), Tennessee ($117,300) and Arkansas ($118,430) the least. Georgia is the one large market among the low payers: the eighth most PA jobs in the country at the third-lowest mean wage. Our nurse practitioner salary by state guide ranks the other advanced practice profession from the same release, and the fastest-growing healthcare jobs puts both in context.

Will there be more physician assistant jobs?

Yes, and quickly. The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook counted 168,900 physician assistant jobs in 2025 and projects employment to grow 21% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the 3% average for all occupations, adding 35,700 jobs. Including replacement of PAs who retire or change occupation, it projects about 11,500 openings a year over the decade. The Handbook attributes the demand to an aging population and more patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes, to the spread of team-based care, and to the fact that physician assistants can be trained more quickly than physicians. Its employer breakdown matches the OEWS picture: physicians' offices employ 53% of PAs, hospitals 26%, outpatient care centers 9%, government 3% and educational services 3%. The Handbook's median pay for 2025 was $135,880 a year, or $65.33 an hour.

What it takes to get one

A physician assistant needs a master's degree from an accredited PA program, and every state and the District of Columbia requires a license. A licensed PA who passes the national certifying exam may use the credential PA-C, which has to be maintained with continuing education and a periodic recertification exam. Because licensure is state by state, a PA moving to a new state applies to that state's licensing board before starting work, and the wait is part of any relocation plan.

How to use this if you are job hunting

1. Decide which number matters to you. Headcount favors New York, California, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania and North Carolina; density favors Alaska, Connecticut, New York, Delaware and Rhode Island. New York scores on both and pays near the top.
2. Check pay next to volume. California, Washington, New Jersey and Oregon lead on wages; Georgia, Tennessee and the Deep South trail even where the jobs are plentiful. A $169,110 California mean and a $112,090 Georgia mean are a $57,000 gap for the same license.
3. Look at the settings, not just the map. Group practices hire more than half of all physician assistants everywhere, and outpatient centers and federal facilities pay the most; a search limited to hospitals covers a quarter of the market.
4. Mind the license. A PA license is per state, so budget the weeks a new state's board takes before a start date, and ask whether the employer reimburses it.
5. Search where the postings are. The physician assistant jobs hub lists open positions from hospital and health-system career sites by state and city, with links from every state row of the tables above.

Sources

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, occupation profile for Physician Assistants (29-1071), May 2025, read 25 October 2026.
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Physician Assistants, 2025 employment and pay, 2025-35 projections, read 25 October 2026.