The strength of the national health care labor market showed improvement across a number of major metropolitan areas in the first quarter, as measured by the Health Workforce Solutions Labor Market Pulse Index, a quarterly barometer of local market health care workforce fluctuations.

Of the 30 markets tracked by the LMPI, 18 showed signs of accelerated expansion this quarter (which ended March 31). That's an increase from the last quarter of 2010, when 14 markets showed growth. Additionally, the LMPI posted a 4 percent increase during this year's first quarter. There was a significant 13 percent drop from the third quarter to the fourth quarter in 2010.

"After some sluggishness that mirrored the broader economy, we seem to finally be seeing some meaningful positive movement in the health care labor markets," says David Cherner, managing partner of Health Workforce Solutions. Cherner says the movement is because "things have bottomed out economically, the reality of health reform is finally setting in, and large employers are beginning to come back to what we've known for a while – there will be significant shortages of health professionals across the spectrum in the coming years."