Firefighter Shortage 2026: 26,800 Openings a Year

BLS Employment Projections count 26,800 firefighter openings a year, on average, from 2025 to 2035. That is replacement plus modest growth, not a boom. NFPA counted 635,100 volunteer firefighters in 2023, 62 percent of the U.S. fire service. Paid departments still run a written exam, a physical the city names, a background, and an oral board. Short-staffed is not the same as easy to get hired.

30-second answer. 26,800 firefighter openings a year (BLS EP 2025-35). Current paid employment 345,990 (BLS OEWS May 2025). Volunteers 635,100 of 1,018,100 in 2023 (NFPA). Growth is 4 percent, about as fast as all occupations. Show up prepared for the city's own test.

Last verified: 2026-08-23.

This is not the Texas how-to. It is the national demand picture, with Texas doors named where we already have a sourced posting.

The numbers, one table

BLS paid employment and NFPA career counts are different surveys. NFPA career excludes state, federal, and private-brigade firefighters. BLS OEWS 33-2011 is the paid-job series. Do not treat 345,990 and 383,000 as a disagreement.

The EP 2025 base of 355,300 is the projection starting point, not current headcount. Current paid employment is the May 2025 OEWS figure.

Volunteers are most of the fire service, and that count fell

NFPA's firefighter-count table (Fire Experience Survey) for 2023: 1,018,100 total, 383,000 career, 635,100 volunteer. Volunteer share is 62 percent. Older rows on that table are not the current count. Use the 2023 volunteer figure, not a prior-year volunteer row.

On that table, volunteers were 814,850 in 2015 and 635,100 in 2023. Career counts on the same series rose over that span. BLS notes that its firefighter employment numbers exclude volunteers, and that volunteers are still the largest share of firefighters nationwide, especially in communities under 25,000.

A smaller volunteer force is not a hiring guarantee at a metro career department. It is why some communities move toward combination or career staffing, and why the paid opening count stays large even when the growth rate is ordinary.

Texas paid fire sits on TCFP. Texas volunteers generally train to SFFMA. Those are different doors. Career vs volunteer: career vs volunteer firefighting.

Paid firefighter openings are mostly replacement

BLS EP 2025-35: firefighter employment 355,300 in 2025 to 368,400 in 2035, 4 percent, about 13,100 additional jobs. About 26,800 openings a year. Most of those openings are people leaving the occupation or retiring, not new seats.

That is the hiring environment: regular academy classes, not a collapse of standards. Houston's non-certified door is 15 accredited college hours or two years of full-time active military; certified is TCFP Basic plus DSHS EMT-Basic or higher (HFD requirements, retrieved 2026-08-21). Denton hires TCFP Basic plus DSHS EMT-B or paramedic. Confirm the notice in your cycle.

Texas order of operations: how to become a firefighter in Texas. Pay by department: Texas firefighter salary 2026. Clock: how long it takes in Texas.

EMS demand is a separate series

EMT and paramedic are not one firefighter number. BLS EP 2025-35: 13,800 EMT openings a year and 4,300 paramedic openings a year (18,100 combined; the OOH prints 18,200 for the two together and the two figures disagree by 100). Growth about 6 percent (EMT) and 5.0 percent (paramedic).

Pay, May 2025 OEWS: EMT median $44,470; paramedic median $60,600. Those are national medians, not a Texas city step. Do not use the May 2024 OOH wage column. That vintage is superseded (SHARED-STATS.md).

Ladder: EMT to paramedic career ladder. EMS door: /pathways/ems.

What still gates you

A staffing gap does not skip the physical, the background, or the oral board.

Physical tests are city-specific. Dallas Fire-Rescue names CPAT. Denton runs its own department PAT, not CPAT. Houston uses an HFD Physical Ability Test Packet, not CPAT. Read the sheet on the notice. National CPAT spec: what is the CPAT.

TCFP Basic still requires documented medical training equal to EMR, ECA, EMT, or paramedic. That is a certificate floor, not a statewide EMT-at-application rule. Some cities hire you and send you to EMT school; Denton wants the card on hire.

Police is a parallel shortage with its own rules. This page does not print TCOLE hour counts or police start bands. Law enforcement door: /pathways/law-enforcement.

What to do this week

1. Pick the city, then read that city's notice. The Texas how-to is the order of operations.
2. Train the physical that city prints. Do not default to CPAT because a national article mentioned it.
3. Get the medical credential the posting names, or the one TCFP will want for Basic if you are going the academy-first path. EMT-first vs academy-first: fire academy vs EMT school first.
4. If you are separating from the military, Houston's non-certified posting accepts two years of full-time active service in place of the 15 college hours. That is Houston's rule, not a statewide waiver.
5. Keep a clean record. Background and oral board still happen when the department is short.

Register a profile when you want one on file: /register. Fire pathway: /pathways/fire.