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Why CompHealth
Locum Tenens
Explore a wide range of medical laboratory jobs across the U.S., including travel assignments, contract lab technician jobs, and flexible opportunities for experienced lab professionals.
Whether you're exploring clinical or pathology lab work, CompHealth connects you with travel and permanent roles across the country—backed by expert support every step of the way and tailored to your goals, specialty, and lifestyle.
Your partner in every step of your medical lab career
Finding the right lab position is about more than matching a resume to an opening. Different specialties, work environments, schedules, and career stages require different approaches.
As a specialized lab tech staffing agency, CompHealth understands the nuances of laboratory careers—from shift expectations and certification requirements to the differences between small rural hospitals, reference labs, trauma centers, and specialty facilities. We work with professionals across the country to connect them with positions that align with both their professional goals and personal priorities.
Explore travel opportunities in medical laboratory jobs
Careers in clinical laboratory science can look very different depending on your specialty and workplace setting. Some lab professionals prefer the fast pace of trauma centers, while others thrive in smaller community hospitals, pathology labs, or highly specialized diagnostic environments.
Daily work can vary significantly across laboratory specialties. Medical laboratory technicians and medical technologists often work across multiple departments, including chemistry, hematology, microbiology, coagulation, urinalysis, and blood bank. In contrast, histotechnicians, histotechnologists, cytotechnologists, and pathologists’ assistants typically work in more specialized laboratory settings.
A generalist would be able to work in any department in a hospital: chemistry, hematology, blood bank, microbiology, etc.
Travel assignments can vary across a wide range of pathology lab careers and specialties, including:
Whether you're interested in medical laboratory technician positions, microbiology laboratory jobs, histotechnology roles, or pathologists' assistant jobs, CompHealth helps connect professionals with career opportunities that match their training and long-term goals.
What you get from a leading lab tech staffing agency like CompHealth
Working with the right staffing agency can simplify the process of finding medical laboratory jobs, with the huge upside of giving you access to opportunities you may not find on your own.
For instance, CompHealth supports laboratory professionals with:
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Dedicated recruiters who specialize in laboratory staffing
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Access to travel positions nationwide
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Credentialing and licensing assistance
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Interview coordination and preparation
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Housing and travel support for eligible travel assignments
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Weekly direct deposits for travel clinicians
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Comprehensive malpractice coverage
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Support teams that help manage onboarding logistics
“My recruiter was very realistic about how I should go about moving from management to not management,” says Jill Peterson, a medical laboratory specialist who used CompHealth during a cross-country move.
Peterson also notes that CompHealth handled much of the outreach process directly. “My recruiter actually contacted the hospital that I’m working for, for me,” she says. “I didn’t even contact them.”
Pay and career potential in medical laboratory jobs
Compensation for medical laboratory jobs varies based on specialty, region, shift differentials, certifications, and assignment type. Generally speaking, medical technologist salary ranges are often higher for professionals working in specialized departments such as microbiology, blood bank, molecular diagnostics, or cytotechnology. Medical lab technician salary trends may vary by education level, scope of practice, and local demand, but both medical technologist and medical lab technician salary ranges remain competitive nationwide.
Travel assignments can also substantially change the compensation equation. While hourly pay may not appear dramatically higher at first glance, many travelers point to stipends, housing support, and reimbursements as significant parts of their overall earnings.
Your housing is paid for, so that's very important to consider. In a way, I was making more than my previous jobs.
Some of the highest-paying lab jobs are often tied to specialized experience, travel assignments, hard-to-staff locations, or advanced roles in pathology and laboratory science.
Strong demand for lab professionals
The demand for laboratory professionals remains strong nationwide due to retirements, staffing shortages, expanding healthcare needs, and continued demand for diagnostic testing. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects about 22,600 openings for clinical laboratory technologists and technicians each year through 2034.
Smaller hospitals and rural facilities often struggle to recruit experienced staff, creating sustained demand for travel and contract professionals.
A lot of times it was a small facility that had a hard time attracting full-time employees to come and move there.
About two-thirds of primary care Health Professional Shortage Areas are located in rural or partially rural areas.
For certified professionals who are adaptable and comfortable working across departments, the lab technician job outlook remains especially favorable. Continued demand creates strong long-term stability and opportunities for advancement into specialized departments, leadership roles, and higher-paying assignments.
Where can you maximize your pay? Check out the highest-paying states in healthcare
Build a medical technologist career that fits your life
One of the biggest advantages of medical lab careers is the flexibility they can provide over time. Travel opportunities can make it easier to shape a career around your priorities, whether that means greater scheduling control, career transitions, or avoiding burnout.
Travel medical technologist jobs and travel lab technician jobs can appeal to professionals who want to build broader resumes, take breaks between assignments, transition between career stages, or maintain more control over scheduling.
That flexibility can look different depending on where you are in your career. Some lab professionals use travel assignments to see the country. Others use contract work to earn more, step back from leadership, or find a better fit after burnout.
You can work as much as you want. If you want to take three months off and go to Europe, you don’t have to ask for vacation.
See new places while advancing your career
For many laboratory professionals, travel work offers benefits that extend beyond career growth and compensation. Assignments provide opportunities to experience different parts of the country and explore new communities without committing to a permanent move.
“I was getting paid to travel to different parts of the United States where they would pay for my housing, pay for my food, give me a job, and give me insurance,” Day says. “It was like, this is a dream.”
How to get started with travel lab jobs
Most successful travel lab professionals build on a strong foundation. Generalist experience is particularly valuable because many facilities need travelers who can quickly adapt across departments.
“You need to have a minimum of two years of experience,” Trevor Zimmerman advises. “You want to have the most well-rounded experience right out of college that you can possibly have.”
Nancy Chimara, a traveling pathologists’ assistant, emphasized flexibility as well: “Being adaptable and trying to be a ‘people pleaser’ is important when entering new facilities and workflows.”
The recruiters at CompHealth are wonderful people. It’s a very relationship-based company.
He gave me a sense of ease that I was getting help with this.
Find medical lab tech jobs near you or across the country
CompHealth staffs medical laboratory jobs across the United States, including positions in large metro hospitals, rural critical access facilities, specialty clinics, and pathology labs.
Whether you are searching for “medical lab tech jobs near me,” interested in getting paid to travel while leveraging your professional skill set, or exploring your next permanent role, our recruiters can help connect you with positions that fit your experience, lifestyle, and goals.
Ready to take the next step in your lab career?
CompHealth is the lab tech staffing agency that supports overall success for anyone seeking travel assignments, contract lab technician jobs, or long-term medical laboratory careers.