Medical assistant jobs in Florida

Those 66,110 medical assistants work out to 6.7 for every 1,000 jobs in Florida. Just 2 states have higher totals, which puts Florida at 3 of 51 across all 50 states and Washington, DC. The numbers come from federal job figures.

Yearly openings include brand new roles and jobs left behind by someone else. This puts the state at 3 of 51 in the yearly openings ranking.

Yes, and the pace beats the national rate. Florida expects the field to grow from 59,990 jobs in 2024 to 73,820 by 2034. That works out to 23.1% growth, while the US figure is 12.5%. Florida sits at 8 of 51 for expected growth.

That means new graduates are stepping into a field that is adding jobs, not just replacing people who leave.

Median pay marks the middle of the range. Half of medical assistants earn more than that figure, and half earn less. In Florida, the middle sits at $43,680 per year, which equals $21.00 an hour. Nationally, the median is slightly higher at $45,690, so Florida comes in at 33 of 51 for median pay.

The middle half of workers makes somewhere between $37,830 and $46,800. At the bottom, the lowest-paid tenth earns $35,880 or less. At the top, the best-paid tenth takes home $49,040 or more.

Florida pay sits below the national median, yet job totals and yearly openings rank near the top.

A metro area covers a central city and the nearby suburbs and small towns that share the same job market. Here are job counts and median pay for five Florida metro areas, based on May 2025 figures:

Miami has the most medical assistant jobs, 18,670. North Port–Bradenton–Sarasota pays the most of the five at $45,620, with 2,270 jobs.

You don't need a license to work as a medical assistant in Florida. A state law spells out what you can do, all under a doctor's direct supervision. A physician assistant can also fill that supervisory role. While supervised, you can draw blood, administer injections and medications given other ways than through a vein, gather specimens and carry out dialysis. These duties are spelled out in Florida's medical assistant statute.

One title rule does apply. You may describe yourself as a certified medical assistant only if a program accredited by the NCCA, a medical association or an entity the Board approves has certified you. X-ray work needs its own certificate from the Department of Health, for example the Basic X-ray Machine Operator credential.

An outside organization reviews and approves an accredited program for quality. This site lists 67 Florida schools that share graduate counts for their medical assistant programs with the federal college survey. Of those schools, 21 have programs accredited by CAAHEP or ABHES.

Length and cost differ quite a bit from one program to the next. Nationwide, career schools that report how long students take to finish show a median of 9 months, with a low of 2 months and a high of 32. The median published price for a full program at those schools, counting tuition, fees and books, came to $17,257 in 2023-24. For local residents, the median tuition and fees for a full year of study at a public college was $4,346, according to federal school data.

Online study means you complete your classes remotely, though the supervised clinical hours are done in person. Keep that in mind as you compare schools, since the clinical placement is where the hands-on work takes place.