Purpose

Over the past decade, an increasing number of bariatric surgeons are trained in fellowships annually despite only a modest increase in nationwide bariatric surgery volume. The study surveys the bariatric surgery job market trend in order to inform better career-choice decisions for trainees interested in this field.

Materials and methods

A national retrospective cohort survey over an 11-year period was conducted. Bariatric surgery fellowship graduates from 2008 to 2019 and program directors (PDs) were surveyed electronically. Univariate analysis was performed comparing responses between earlier (2008-2016) and recent graduates (2017-2019).

Results

We identified a total of 996 graduates and 143 PDs. Response rates were 9% and 20% respectively (n = 88, 29). Sixty-eight percent of graduates felt there are not enough bariatric jobs for new graduates. Seventy-nine percent of PDs felt that it is more difficult to find a bariatric job for their fellows now than 5-10 years ago. Forty-eight percent of PDs felt that we are training too many bariatric fellows. Seventy-seven percent of all graduates want the majority of their practice to be comprised bariatric cases; however, only 42% of them reported achieving this. In the univariate analysis, recent graduates were less likely to be currently employed as a bariatric surgeon (64% vs. 86%, p = 0.02) and were less satisfied with their current case volume (42% vs. 66%, p = 0.01).

Conclusions

The temporal increase in bariatric fellowship graduates over the past decade has resulted in a significant decline in the likelihood of employment in a full-time bariatric surgical practice and a decline in surgeons' bariatric case volumes.