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

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Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses

SOC 29-2061 · 2024-2034

Care for ill, injured, or convalescing patients or persons with disabilities in hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, private homes, group homes, and similar institutions. May work under the supervision of a registered nurse. Licensing 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
$81,982per year
Projected openings
81,600
Projected change
+15%
Usually needs
Postsecondary non-degree award

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. Service Orientation
  2. Social Perceptiveness
  3. Coordination
  4. Monitoring
  5. Speaking
  6. Active Listening

Pay by region

RegionTypical pay in CaliforniaProjected openings
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA (San Benito and Santa Clara Counties)$95,3632,640
San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City MD (San Francisco and San Mateo Counties)$93,6422,210
Oakland-Fremont-Berkeley MD (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties)$93,5534,590
San Rafael MD (Marin County)$87,134380
Napa MSA (Napa County)$84,044280
Salinas MSA (Monterey County)$82,790510
Vallejo MSA (Solano County)$82,565700
Santa Rosa-Petaluma MSA (Sonoma County)$82,359640
Santa Cruz-Watsonville MSA (Santa Cruz County)$81,743290
Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom MSA (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo Counties)$81,6203,940
San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles MSA (San Luis Obispo County)$79,606410
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad MSA (San Diego County)$79,3805,890
Santa Maria-Santa Barbara MSA (Santa Barbara County)$78,723620
Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura MSA (Ventura County)$78,702950
North Coast Region (Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, and Mendocino Counties)$78,651310
Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine MD (Orange County)$78,6096,040
Yuba City MSA (Sutter and Yuba Counties)$78,096230
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale MD (Los Angeles County)$78,03521,850
Eastern Sierra-Mother Lode Region (Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Inyo, Mariposa, Mono, and Tuolumne Counties)$77,614200
Hanford-Corcoran MSA (Kings County)$77,614230
North Valley-Northern Mountains Region (Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Trinity Counties)$77,614360
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties)$77,6147,170
Stockton-Lodi MSA (San Joaquin County)$77,6141,170
Bakersfield-Delano MSA (Kern County)$76,6071,220
El Centro MSA (Imperial County)$75,765300
Fresno MSA (Fresno and Madera Counties)$75,3332,000
Merced MSA (Merced County)$73,371230
Modesto MSA (Stanislaus County)$73,371950
Redding MSA (Shasta County)$73,217350
Visalia MSA (Tulare County)$72,827710
Chico MSA (Butte County)$71,923310

What the pay actually ranges across

The lowest-paid tenth earn under
$66,192
A quarter earn under
$76,935
Half earn under
$81,982
Three quarters earn under
$96,343
The highest-paid tenth earn over
$103,262

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
Registered Nurses$144,197228,840+13.5%
Paramedics$76,6783,120+15.7%
Nurse Practitioners$173,23726,610+52.2%
Nursing Assistants$48,836172,680+10.3%
Emergency Medical Technicians$47,67819,450+15%

Programs that train for this job — 52