Doctor unemployment crisis: moving to New Zealand, living on unemployment benefits, and competing with thousands for roles
Some foundation year two (FY2) doctors due to finish training next week are already looking to leave the UK after failing to find a role in the NHS, The BMJ can reveal. Others have shared how they had been living on Jobseeker’s Allowance as they compete with thousands of others for scant posts. Earlier this week, a BMA survey of just over 1000 FY2 doctors found that up to half don’t have a job to go to when they finish foundation training next week.1 With increasing numbers of resident doctors unable to obtain training places, competition for non-training roles is fierce. One resident doctor, Elias Ioannou, has been unemployed since finishing the foundation programme in August 2024. He has unsuccessfully applied for “at the very least a hundred jobs” in the NHS and has been told that some roles have had over 7000 applicants. Despite also applying for jobs in cleaning, gardening, and hospitality, he’s found such work hard to come by. “No one wants to know, because they see that the only
