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Job outlook for medical administrators in the United States
Medical administrator job growth summary. After extensive research, interviews, and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
The projected medical administrator job growth rate is -8% from 2018-2028.
About -286,900 new jobs for medical administrators are projected over the next decade.
Medical administrator salaries have increased 11% for medical administrators in the last 5 years.
There are over 32,295 medical administrators currently employed in the United States.
There are 104,510 active medical administrator job openings in the US.
The average medical administrator salary is $35,713.
Are medical administrator jobs in demand?
Medical administrator job and salary trends over time
Medical administrator jobs over time
Medical administrator job growth rate over time
| Year | # of jobs | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 32,295 | 0.01% |
| 2020 | 29,442 | 0.01% |
| 2019 | 29,810 | 0.01% |
| 2018 | 28,830 | 0.01% |
| 2017 | 28,366 | 0.01% |
Average medical administrator salary over time
Medical administrator salary by year
| Year | Avg. salary | Hourly rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $35,713 | $17.17 | +2.1% |
| 2024 | $34,977 | $16.82 | +2.3% |
| 2023 | $34,193 | $16.44 | +3.3% |
| 2022 | $33,093 | $15.91 | +2.6% |
| 2021 | $32,252 | $15.51 | +2.1% |
Medical administrator jobs by state
Most common states for medical administrators
| Rank | State | Population | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vermont | 623,657 | 244 | 39% |
| 2 | North Dakota | 755,393 | 277 | 37% |
| 3 | Utah | 3,101,833 | 887 | 29% |
| 4 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 203 | 29% |
| 5 | Nebraska | 1,920,076 | 529 | 28% |
| 6 | Delaware | 961,939 | 260 | 27% |
| 7 | Alaska | 739,795 | 203 | 27% |
| 8 | Minnesota | 5,576,606 | 1,437 | 26% |
| 9 | New Hampshire | 1,342,795 | 333 | 25% |
| 10 | Wyoming | 579,315 | 146 | 25% |
| 11 | Pennsylvania | 12,805,537 | 3,087 | 24% |
| 12 | Massachusetts | 6,859,819 | 1,654 | 24% |
| 13 | Maine | 1,335,907 | 317 | 24% |
| 14 | Idaho | 1,716,943 | 400 | 23% |
| 15 | Illinois | 12,802,023 | 2,847 | 22% |
| 16 | Georgia | 10,429,379 | 2,268 | 22% |
| 17 | Tennessee | 6,715,984 | 1,451 | 22% |
| 18 | Missouri | 6,113,532 | 1,319 | 22% |
| 19 | Washington | 7,405,743 | 1,523 | 21% |
| 20 | Alabama | 4,874,747 | 1,028 | 21% |
Most common cities for medical administrators
| Rank | City | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Watsonville | 2 | 4% | $40,494 |
| 2 | Hamden | 2 | 3% | $50,594 |
| 3 | Aventura | 1 | 3% | $35,425 |
| 4 | Bethesda | 1 | 2% | $36,522 |
| 5 | Clinton | 1 | 1% | $33,304 |
| 6 | Livonia | 1 | 1% | $32,925 |
| 7 | Denver | 2 | 0% | $34,321 |
| 8 | Cincinnati | 1 | 0% | $31,413 |
| 9 | Cleveland | 1 | 0% | $33,980 |
| 10 | El Paso | 1 | 0% | $36,250 |
| 11 | Kansas City | 1 | 0% | $33,835 |
| 12 | Lubbock | 1 | 0% | $35,018 |
Medical Administrator job outlook: Expert opinions
Our panel of medical administrator experts
University of Nebraska - Omaha
Ohio University
Tarleton State University
University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Hawai'i West O'ahu
DePaul University
American College of Health Care Administrators
What general advice would you give to a Medical Administrator?
Dr. Joseph Oluwole: The ability to build and sustain relationships with staff for climate and culture and with parents for family and community relations, all to support the holistic success of students.
What will help Medical Administrators increase their earning potential?
Dr. Joseph Oluwole: My general advice is to seek out administrator and professor mentors who can provide a sounding board and encouragement through the emotional roller coaster that administration can be. I cannot overstate the importance of supportive mentors to the success of a new graduate beginning as an administrator. Even the State of New Jersey, for instance, recognizes the importance of mentoring and created a formal program for new assistant principals and principals to seek support from experienced mentors under the state's New Jersey Leaders to Leaders (NJL2L) program.
What Medical Administrator skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Janice Garnett Ed.D.: New leaders must balance their vision with the realities and priorities of the school and/or school district. In other words, begin by developing an entry plan to learn and understand existing budget(s), staffing, community, and other priority needs of the school and/or district. Include in the plan how you will focus on relationships to build trust and rapport with all stakeholders. A communication plan with transparent messages and ample active listening will be key. The educational landscape constantly evolves, calling for continuous learning through professional development, networking, and mentorship.
What will help Medical Administrators increase their earning potential?
Janice Garnett Ed.D.: Being a future-ready leader, Utilizing data-driven decision-making, Leading culturally responsive schools, Leading learning through instructional leadership, Championing Social-Emotional Learning (SEL).
What general advice would you give to a Medical Administrator?
Eve Leija AAS, NCMA: To maximize salary for a medical assistant obtaining certification from one of the credentialing organizations such as American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA) can make a new hire more competitive. Continuing educations along with developing any specialized skills such as phlebotomy. Demonstrating professionalism initiative and reliability, along with gaining a strong reference from previous employers.
What are the biggest trends we'll see in the Medical Administrator job market given the pandemic?
Greg Kessler Ph.D.: I think the biggest trends we are likely to see include an increased acceptance and reliance upon online and virtual immersive technologies. Previously, only a handful of faculty felt comfortable using technologies beyond the simplest tools. Now that we are forced to interact with one another online more and more, people will want to be able to feel more like they are sharing a space with others. This would be supported by simulated immersive technologies such as virtual reality. While VR is somewhat familiar to people now, it will likely take on more diverse forms. These will also incorporate a variety of artificial intelligence that can help by performing automated assessments and providing automated feedback to students as they interact with content. If you think of movies like Ready Player One, you can imagine the kind of thing I am referring to.
Dr. Jacqueline Abernathy
Assistant ProfessorTarleton State University
Public Administration
What general advice would you give to a Medical Administrator?
Dr. Jacqueline Abernathy: My advice to graduates would be this: do not sell yourself short by taking a job at a lower level than you have to or a job that does not fully utilize your education. Otherwise, why did you spend the time and money, and effort to get your degree? I think many graduates assume that having a degree in a job where it is not required (but preferred) makes them more valuable as employees. I think the opposite is true. I think it devalues their worth to an organization and just makes them cheaper and more replaceable, especially when employers know that they can pay someone less to do the same job if they run into a budget crunch.
If having a degree is considered a plus for a job rather than a necessity, it actually makes their degree less valuable as a perk than if it were a requirement. If a degree is necessary to do a job, then the time, effort, and expense obtaining it was worthwhile because it was necessary to do that job, and also, the employer knows that they have to compensate employees for those costs. There is nothing wrong with working your way up, paying your dues, etc. but starting at a lower rung just makes a longer, harder climb to the top. They may have upward mobility more than somebody without a degree, but they will be compensated less than they are worthwhile waiting for something better to manifest. I would exhort graduates to start as high as they can and not settle for underemployment. Find a job where your knowledge, skills, and abilities are put to complete use, and the degree you earned to get those assets is not wasted or unfairly compensated.
What Medical Administrator skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. Jacqueline Abernathy: I think this piggybacks a little bit on what I said above on finding a way to distinguish oneself from the competition. Anything done during a gap year would hopefully yield some knowledge, skill, or ability that can be listed as a bullet point on their resume that others may not have. Suppose a student just wants to travel to China for a while and see the Great Wall. "Back-packed in the Orient" would not be a resume bullet but "conversational in Mandarin" would be. To a lesser extent, "Cultural competency with Chinese colleagues and associates" would be, and if asked, the student could explain their familiarity with Chinese customs and etiquette came from extensive time abroad. That might give the students an advantage in certain jobs, but just being able to speak another language could be a job in itself, like as a translator. Whatever a student does during a gap year, ideally, they should walk away with a skill that someone will pay for.
Unfortunately, because of economic realities, a lot of students just take the year off to work and they work in a job where a year of experience won't necessarily count for much (if anything) when they graduate with their expected degree. This goes for both high school graduates and college graduates taking a break before their next degree. I've read the arguments about the benefits of taking a gap year, but aside from students that are on a waiting list for a prestigious program who just have time to kill, I personally find the concept of a gap year to be ill-advised as a general rule, more so between an undergraduate degree and masters or masters and doctorate. Often times the pitfalls outweigh the benefits at any stage. It just presents an opportunity for life to get in the way of something a student knows they want to do, or it delays it. Someone fresh out of high school taking a gap year to get a skill that they think will benefit them in their career after graduation might find themselves in a completely different career by the time they graduate. And university graduates who plan to further their education- taking a break or just working for a while before graduate school can put them at a disadvantage. Taking a break makes graduate school potentially harder once they have gotten used to living without that stress, the transition back to a student can be unnecessarily difficult than if they went straight through.
Those who start their career with a bachelor's degree when they know they need more than can make life choices and financial commitments that are very difficult to keep in grad school. Perhaps they financed a car or became invested in a project they don't want to abandon but would have easier with a master's degree. Or they start a family and now have to juggle caring for and providing for their family with getting the next degree they need when caring for family would have likely been easier if they had an advanced degree. My bachelor's degree was in social work and many of my classmates decided that they just wanted to work for a while before attending grad school, only to find their return to school delayed and all of the experience they gain with that license not translating into an advantage after they graduated and were looking for a job with the higher license. Essentially many of them just had to play catch-up to those that went straight through and started their career at a higher level. Starting at one level when you know that you need the next level can just be lost time, especially since starting with a bang would only put off working for two years to get the next degree.
I had classmates that intended to go back after a year or two, but by the time they intended to return, they fell in love, got married, had beautiful babies, and all of these blessings meant that they couldn't walk away from a job and health insurance to study full-time. This meant it was harder and took far longer and increased their time working for lower pay, whereas if they hadn't taken a break, they would be working full-time at a higher pay with no classes to juggle. I'm not suggesting that people put off life until school is done or delay marriage, children, or buying a home in favor of going back to school if that is their next step in life, only that they can't assume that it'll be easy to just pick up where they left off if they choose to wait.
Less fortunate things can happen as well, like health crises and caregiving, developing an illness, or having to care for aging parents. These things would have been easier if they have chosen to go straight through. These are some reasons why I think taking a gap year is risky. But if anybody wants to take a gap year, I would be conscientious not to commit to anything that would delay returning to school or not make up for that time by giving them a competitive edge. Otherwise, a year off can easily turn into a decade and it can just add up to lost time.
Will there be an enduring impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Medical Administrators?
James R. Thompson Ph.D.: The coronavirus pandemic has made apparent the vital role the government plays in addressing society's larger problems. It will attract new people to the field of public administration and strengthen the commitment of those already in the field to their careers.
What type of skills will young Medical Administrators need?
Dr. Mary F. Heller: Young graduates will need to emerge into the profession as. . .
-Caring and flexible individuals who understand how to design and deliver developmentally appropriate and culturally relevant pedagogy to our diverse student populations.
-Technologically savvy teachers can use a state of the art computer software and Internet platforms to support teaching and learning.
-Life-long learners who are not hesitant to reach out to others through professional development or graduate work keep current in their respective fields.
What are the biggest trends we'll see in the Medical Administrator job market given the pandemic?
Dr. Anna Frank: Health care! Not just once the individual is sick, but prevention. No one wants to be at a "higher" risk for catching viruses. The public realizes that health is in their control. In response to the pandemic, more and more individuals go outside for physical activity or use their extra time to get healthy. Walking trails are packed, bikes for children were out of stock this summer, and purchasing home fitness equipment is rising. Professionals are needed to guide the public to new programming, access to facilities, and knowledge in the broad wellness area. Specifically, I think there is a better appreciation for the value of leisure time, recreation, and taking care of ourselves. Our health care systems know this and are supporting efforts to engage in activities that make their clients healthier.
Are there any particularly good places in the United States for Medical Administrators to find work opportunities?
Dr. Anna Frank: This was on ZipRecruiter-outdoor jobs.
Try the Top Five
If location isn't a factor in your outdoor job search, then consider heading to one of the top five states who offer the most employment opportunities to be had under the sun (and stars). Those are:
1. California
2. Florida
3. Texas
4. New York
5. North Carolina
What skills stand out on Medical Administrator resumes?
Dr. Anna Frank: First, a degree from a highly respected university. Our graduates have been highly sought after. Experience working with a variety of individuals in a variety of settings is significant. Future professionals must then be committed to social justice, how are explicit in supporting the health and recreational needs of ALL individuals, not just those who can purchase a Peloton.
What general advice would you give to a Medical Administrator?
Bill McGinley: LTC administrators should have at least a bachelor's degree in business or a healthcare-related field. A well-rounded internship that exposes the future administrator to all aspects of the operation is essential. Needed skills include business, marketing, finance, operations, management and leadership.
Post pandemic opportunities will be nationwide in this field with a greater need in rural areas.
Technology will continue to play a big role in the field. Computerized medical records, census management, and all clinical areas will continue to dominate. Online meetings are liable to continue as well, as employers realize that there is a savings to be gained by not having people travel to meetings and conferences.