Sample — prepared for illustration.
Great Bay Staffing · Hiring snapshot
Outpatient Orthopedic Physical Therapist — Portland, Maine
Two openings · Independent outpatient practice
Prepared September 2026 · Sources dated below
Hiring difficulty
7 / 10
Supply is genuinely good. Pay position and licensure friction are the binding constraints.
Realistic candidate pool
Adequate, but fully employed
Maine has 1,450 licensed physical therapists at a location quotient of 1.47 — one of the highest concentrations in the country — and UNE graduates a DPT class in Portland every year. What doesn't exist is an available bench. Cumberland County unemployment was 2.3% in June 2026. Every viable candidate is working somewhere, so this is a competitive displacement from the first phone call, not a recruitment.
Compensation position
Below market as posted
The $78,000–$92,000 band opens beneath the national 10th percentile ($77,140) and tops out just above the 25th ($86,160), against a national median of $102,760. Meanwhile a hospital system 40 minutes north is advertising an hourly rate that annualizes past $104,000, and the dominant Portland system is stacking a $10,000 sign-on onto base.
Expected time to fill
5–8 weeks active · 14–20 weeks passive
Per seat. Both seats: 8–14 weeks active. Estimated from market conditions, not measured fills.
Biggest obstacle
You are selling a $106,000 package as a $78,000 job.
The sign-on, CE allowance and days, four weeks PTO, 401(k) match, paid APTA and licensure, loan assistance and productivity bonus add roughly $14,000–$18,000 of first-year value on BLS benefit-cost benchmarks — where benefits average 30.1% of total compensation. Presented as a first-year number, $92,000 base becomes a $106,000–$110,000 package, which competes. Presented as "$78,000 to $92,000 plus benefits," it screens out the experienced clinician the role description is actually describing, before anyone reads the second paragraph.
This is the cheapest fix available in the search, and it costs nothing.