About 56% of new physicians say they’ve received 100-plus job solicitations during training, the highest figure since 1991, AMN Healthcare reported Tuesday.

Despite high interest from hospitals, medical groups and physician recruiters, nearly one-third of those surveyed said they’d choose a profession other than medicine if given the chance. Another 78% said they had received 51 or more job solicitations, also the highest figure since the survey first launched over 30 years ago.

“Physicians coming out of training are being recruited like blue chip athletes,” Leah Grant, president of AMN Healthcare Physician Solutions (formerly Merritt Hawkins), said in a Sept. 26 announcement. “There are simply not enough new physicians to go around.”

About 81% of residents polled said they sometimes, often or always have experienced feelings of burnout during training, while 45% said such feelings are frequent.

In other findings of note:

• Female residents expect to earn less in their first job than men. About 81% of male residents anticipate earning $251,000 or more in their first gig versus 58% for women.
• Only 2% of residents said they would prefer to practice in communities with 10,000 residents or fewer. About 4% would prefer to work in communities with 25,000 people or fewer.
• Lifestyle is a key factor in job selection, cited by 82% of residents, followed by “adequate personal time” (80%), “good financial package” (78%) and geographic location (76%).
• Employment by a hospital was one of the top two choices for 68% of residents compared to 6% who picked private solo practice as a top 2 choice.
• About 61% of residents surveyed said they received no formal instruction about the business side of medicine, and 41% believe they are unprepared to handle this aspect of the profession.

AMN Healthcare speculated that this knowledge gap may be motivating early career physicians to shy away from independent work.

“The days of new doctors hanging out a shingle in an independent solo practice are over,” Grant said in the announcement. “Most new doctors prefer to be employed rather than deal with the financial uncertainty and time demands of private practice.”

AMN Healthcare emailed the survey to about 13,000 medical residents in their final year of training using a list provided by the American Medical Association. Conducted in March, April and May, a total of 241 individuals filled out the questionnaire, for a response rate of 2%. Primary care physicians represented 25% of the sample while the other 75% came from surgical, diagnostic or internal medicine subspecialties.

You can find the full survey results here.