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California training programs, and what happened to the people who took them

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Registered Nurses

SOC 29-1141 · 2024-2034

Assess patient health problems and needs, develop and implement nursing care plans, and maintain medical records. Administer nursing care to ill, injured, convalescent, or disabled patients. May advise patients on health maintenance and disease prevention or provide case management. Licensing or registration required.

How the U.S. Department of Labor describes this work. Published in English only.

What California expects of this job

Typical pay in California
$144,197per year
Projected openings
228,840
Projected change
+13.5%
Usually needs
Bachelor's degree

Bright Outlook — a U.S. Department of Labor designation
Rapid Growth · Numerous Job Openings

The Department's own designation, made from its national projections. It is not this project's assessment and it is not California's: every other figure on this page comes from California's projection, which can point the other way and for some occupations does.

Skills this work uses most

O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, rates how important each of these is to this work, and they are listed in that order, most important first. The ratings themselves are not shown, because the data carries the number without the scale it was measured on. The names are as published, in English.

  1. Social Perceptiveness
  2. Critical Thinking
  3. Speaking
  4. Coordination
  5. Service Orientation
  6. Active Listening

Pay by region

RegionTypical pay in CaliforniaProjected openings
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA (San Benito and Santa Clara Counties)$214,61813,950
San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City MD (San Francisco and San Mateo Counties)$198,3119,420
Vallejo MSA (Solano County)$197,7012,870
San Rafael MD (Marin County)$184,9581,250
Santa Cruz-Watsonville MSA (Santa Cruz County)$183,762850
Santa Rosa-Petaluma MSA (Sonoma County)$177,0752,020
Oakland-Fremont-Berkeley MD (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties)$175,45513,700
Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom MSA (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo Counties)$173,80916,060
Yuba City MSA (Sutter and Yuba Counties)$148,140670
Chico MSA (Butte County)$145,5721,490
Salinas MSA (Monterey County)$138,7511,650
Eastern Sierra-Mother Lode Region (Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Inyo, Mariposa, Mono, and Tuolumne Counties)$138,279580
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale MD (Los Angeles County)$137,54851,170
San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles MSA (San Luis Obispo County)$137,0971,290
Santa Maria-Santa Barbara MSA (Santa Barbara County)$137,0972,020
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad MSA (San Diego County)$136,70716,880
Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine MD (Orange County)$136,50017,060
Stockton-Lodi MSA (San Joaquin County)$135,4233,010
Hanford-Corcoran MSA (Kings County)$134,293400
North Valley-Northern Mountains Region (Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Trinity Counties)$134,232820
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties)$133,69721,550
North Coast Region (Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, and Mendocino Counties)$133,2661,090
Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura MSA (Ventura County)$132,0133,060
Bakersfield-Delano MSA (Kern County)$130,9752,950
Merced MSA (Merced County)$130,328560
Modesto MSA (Stanislaus County)$130,3283,200
Fresno MSA (Fresno and Madera Counties)$130,0716,320
Redding MSA (Shasta County)$128,387870
Visalia MSA (Tulare County)$123,4261,630
El Centro MSA (Imperial County)$121,803440
Napa MSA (Napa County)Not reported790

What the pay actually ranges across

The lowest-paid tenth earn under
$104,095
A quarter earn under
$125,867
Half earn under
$144,197
Three quarters earn under
$178,018
The highest-paid tenth earn over
$219,291

A median is one point. These are the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2026 figures for California, and they say how far apart the people doing this job actually are. Read them as the spread across everyone already in the work — not as a starting wage and not as a promise about where anyone lands.

Similar work

O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, names these as occupations involving work similar to this one — its own reading of the job, not a grouping by code. They keep O*NET's order, and only those California publishes a projection for are shown.

OccupationTypical pay in CaliforniaProjected openingsProjected change
Nurse Practitioners$173,23726,610+52.2%
Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses$81,98281,600+15%
Nursing Assistants$48,836172,680+10.3%
Physician Assistants$170,28711,040+26.7%
Nurse Anesthetists$300,5951,590+27.3%

Programs that train for this job — 42