Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
Job outlook for nursing home administrators in the United States
Nursing home administrator job growth summary. After extensive research, interviews, and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
The projected nursing home administrator job growth rate is 28% from 2018-2028.
About 136,200 new jobs for nursing home administrators are projected over the next decade.
Nursing home administrator salaries have increased 8% for nursing home administrators in the last 5 years.
There are over 4,826 nursing home administrators currently employed in the United States.
There are 137,786 active nursing home administrator job openings in the US.
The average nursing home administrator salary is $80,880.
Are nursing home administrator jobs in demand?
Nursing home administrator job and salary trends over time
Nursing home administrator jobs over time
Nursing home administrator job growth rate over time
| Year | # of jobs | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 4,826 | 0.00% |
| 2020 | 4,447 | 0.00% |
| 2019 | 4,363 | 0.00% |
| 2018 | 4,117 | 0.00% |
| 2017 | 3,833 | 0.00% |
Average nursing home administrator salary over time
Nursing home administrator salary by year
| Year | Avg. salary | Hourly rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | $80,880 | $38.88 | +3.3% |
| 2025 | $78,321 | $37.65 | +1.3% |
| 2024 | $77,351 | $37.19 | +1.4% |
| 2023 | $76,281 | $36.67 | +1.9% |
| 2022 | $74,877 | $36.00 | +2.2% |
Nursing home administrator jobs by state
Most common states for nursing home administrators
| Rank | State | Population | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Colorado | 5,607,154 | 1,635 | 29% |
| 2 | Iowa | 3,145,711 | 913 | 29% |
| 3 | New Mexico | 2,088,070 | 612 | 29% |
| 4 | Montana | 1,050,493 | 283 | 27% |
| 5 | Massachusetts | 6,859,819 | 1,777 | 26% |
| 6 | Kansas | 2,913,123 | 769 | 26% |
| 7 | New Jersey | 9,005,644 | 2,239 | 25% |
| 8 | Oregon | 4,142,776 | 1,043 | 25% |
| 9 | Connecticut | 3,588,184 | 891 | 25% |
| 10 | Nebraska | 1,920,076 | 474 | 25% |
| 11 | Idaho | 1,716,943 | 432 | 25% |
| 12 | Georgia | 10,429,379 | 2,500 | 24% |
| 13 | Alaska | 739,795 | 177 | 24% |
| 14 | Illinois | 12,802,023 | 2,986 | 23% |
| 15 | Michigan | 9,962,311 | 2,225 | 22% |
| 16 | Missouri | 6,113,532 | 1,331 | 22% |
| 17 | Tennessee | 6,715,984 | 1,420 | 21% |
| 18 | Arizona | 7,016,270 | 1,412 | 20% |
| 19 | Alabama | 4,874,747 | 953 | 20% |
| 20 | South Dakota | 869,666 | 175 | 20% |
Most common cities for nursing home administrators
| Rank | City | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lake Worth | 2 | 5% | $67,467 |
| 2 | Boca Raton | 4 | 4% | $67,320 |
| 3 | Deerfield Beach | 3 | 4% | $67,306 |
| 4 | Palm Beach Gardens | 2 | 4% | $67,629 |
| 5 | Boynton Beach | 2 | 3% | $67,416 |
| 6 | Cherry Hill | 2 | 3% | $97,476 |
| 7 | Delray Beach | 2 | 3% | $67,384 |
| 8 | Lowell | 2 | 2% | $96,547 |
| 9 | Boston | 3 | 0% | $97,042 |
| 10 | Atlanta | 2 | 0% | $60,720 |
Nursing Home Administrator job outlook: Expert opinions
Our panel of nursing home administrator experts
Winston-Salem State University
University of Kansas
Wesleyan College
Tarleton State University
Springfield College
George Mason University
DePaul University
Southern Oregon University
Virginia Commonwealth University
International Association of Administrative Professionals
American College of Health Care Administrators
What will help Nursing Home Administrators increase their earning potential?
M. Paige Powell PhD, MHA: Gaining as much experience as possible while in school can help to maximize salaries. This could be through patient-facing jobs, internships, case competitions, or volunteering. Take on leadership roles within your program or extracurricular organizations. Some organizations are open to negotiating starting salaries, so know the cost of living in the relevant geographic area, the marketability of the skills in the job you are seeking, and what value you can provide to the organization.
Dr. Cecil Holland Ph.D.
Professor of Nursing, Associate Dean & COO of Nursing, Assistant Dean for Admission, Student Affairs & Program EffectivenessWinston-Salem State University
Division of Nursing
What skills will help Nursing Home Administrators earn the most?
Dr. Cecil Holland Ph.D.: I believe a combination of hard and soft skills, coupled with program knowledge and leadership acumen, will position one to be successful and marketable as a nursing program coordinator.
Amber Watts Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Clinical PsychologyUniversity of Kansas
Department of Psychology
What are the biggest trends we'll see in the Nursing Home Administrator job market given the pandemic?
Amber Watts Ph.D.: The pandemic has affected older adults more than any other group. The field of gerontology is going full steam to address the many issues faced by older adults in the pandemic, not just limited to preventing and treating COVID-19, but ensuring older people have adequate social support, they can get the supplies and services they need, and can access the technologies that make living in a pandemic possible. Gerontology-related jobs in hospitals, nursing home administration, and senior services are going to be in high demand.
What Nursing Home Administrator skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Virginia Wilcox: If someone needs to take a gap year, I would suggest they volunteer in an area where children are present and not venture too far away from the REAL WORLD experiences of dealing with diverse and various ages of children consistently. It is very easy to 'forget' the daily ups and downs teachers (well anyone in the field of Education really) experience and to recall only the good or the bad...so you either can't wait to get back and then get blindsided by a bad day or you only recall the bad and have no desire to ever return. Neither of those is realistic experiences as they pertain to what educators experience daily, so take the gap year but go read at a library to kids frequently, coach a rec team, work at summer camp, anything that gets you in front of children (either face to face or virtually) on a regular basis.
Dr. Jacqueline Abernathy
Assistant ProfessorTarleton State University
Public Administration
What Nursing Home 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.
What are the biggest trends we'll see in the Nursing Home Administrator job market given the pandemic?
Dr. Jacqueline Abernathy: I think one of the most significant changes to the job market is how the pandemic forced employers to do business virtually if they wanted to do business at all. For non-essential businesses, they had to find a way for employees to work at home if they wanted employees to keep working. This means that jobs that were originally considered location-bound were found to be done remotely, some with little to no modifications.
What this means is that some employers have reconsidered the costs of maintaining physical office space for workers that could telecommute and would rather work at home. Instead of paying rent and utilities for all employees to work in cubicles, they could export those costs to the employee using the spare bedroom they pay for, and home internet, phone, power, the water they pay for themselves. This cost-saving epiphany could affect employers and jobseekers alike in several ways. If a job can be done from anywhere, it means that those who are interested in a job can apply regardless of where they live.
This means a wider pool of talent for employers to choose from instead of just those willing to live within commuting distance. It also means more potential opportunities for jobseekers that might not be willing or able to relocate. But there is a downside, and that is that it increases competition for available jobs. The labor pool is no longer limited to those with skills and experience in a metro area, so those seeking a job are no longer just up against other locals anymore. This means those on the job market might have a more difficult job finding ways to set themselves apart. I think it means more opportunities, potentially, but greater challenges getting hired and a need to find ways to make themselves more marketable than they may have needed to be when labor pools were shallower.
What Nursing Home Administrator skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Eileen Cyr Ed.D.: The pandemic, the polarization of the election, and the Black Lives Matter movement have reinforced today's educators' need to understand how to create a safe learning environment and build a school community. I would encourage students in a gap year to educate themselves on Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and Family and Community Engagement (FACE). This can be accomplished via independent research, participation in MOOCs, and service projects.
Jerome Bozek
Medical practice administratorGeorge Mason University
Healthcare Administration Program
What general advice would you give to a Nursing Home Administrator?
Jerome Bozek: 1. Start creating your professional network. Develop mutually beneficial business relationships primarily with those in your field, although everyone adds value. Most jobs are found through personal contacts vs. published job listings. Being active on Linked-in is a priority.
2. You may have to start at a job that is not in your chosen field/salary level lower than you expected, based on current times. Use it as an opportunity to gain experience and skills which you may not have.
3. Don't get discouraged; things will get better. You have a long working career ahead.
What skills stand out on Nursing Home 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.
Jacqueline Strenio Ph.D.
Assistant ProfessorSouthern Oregon University
Economics Affiliated Faculty, Healthcare Administration Affiliated Faculty, Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program
Will there be an enduring impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Nursing Home Administrators?
Jacqueline Strenio Ph.D.: It's hard to predict the full effect of the novel coronavirus pandemic on graduates as it is, indeed, novel. It has drastically changed the overall macroeconomy and the landscape of work itself by necessitating the rapid transition to remote work and accelerating disruptions in major industries. However, in terms of the coronavirus pandemic's recessionary effects on graduates, we can look to past recessions to make predictions about potential enduring impacts.
Previous research on the effects of graduating into a recession finds that it is associated with initially lower earnings and more job switching, effects that can linger for years. It has even been linked to poorer health in middle age. A lot of these impacts result from the fact that fewer jobs are available overall, reducing the quality of the initial employment offer or the match between employee and employer.
These effects may be amplified for women and BIPOC graduates who already face labor market discrimination. On the demand side, this means employers must evaluate their hiring criteria, making sure they are not disproportionately disadvantaging these populations. On the supply-side, I would encourage graduates to be open to various jobs that may be different from those they initially imagined. Continuing to look for new and better matches as the economy improves will also help combat these initial earnings losses.
However, there is good news for college graduates: recent research has found that these impacts are less severe for those with college degrees than those with high school degrees. So, for those close to graduating, I would strongly encourage them to complete their degrees despite the challenges of remote learning.
How would you rate the starting salaries for Nursing Home Administrators, as well as the prospects for salary advancement?
Dr. Richard Huff Ph.D.: While MPA students are not drawn to public service by high salaries, it is reasonable to expect remuneration, which respects their credentials and experience. Many students are mid-level careerists and are likely to remain in their jobs where an advanced degree may improve their opportunities for advancement, and others may be looking for a career change. Also, a cohort of students moving from undergraduate to graduate degrees with internships is common.
These groups likely present varying degrees of salary requirements and qualifications. In the federal service, an MPA qualifies as one at the GS-9 entry-level. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) publishes salary tables at Link The beginning salary varies by location from $53K to $61K, with the higher amount near large metropolitan areas. Higher salaries are common in overseas areas. Progression is based on performance with opportunities to achieve salaries of $150K and over at the executive levels. Overall, beginning salaries for the MPA considering nonprofits and government agencies is estimated at $53K.
Are there any particularly good places in the United States for Nursing Home Administrators to find work opportunities?
Veronica Cochran: I would urge graduates to not simply focus on locations or organizations with the highest salary or most job or promotion opportunities. The key to remaining engaged and creating value is finding an organization that supports your core beliefs and values.
Second to that, I believe a support network is vital to one's professional development and success. That being said, I have had the opportunity to engage administrative professionals throughout the United States and across the globe. In particular, I came across larger networks in New York, D.C., Alabama, California, and Texas.
If they are looking for a place to start, I believe Zippia's list of Best States for an Administrative Assistant is a great starting point.
What general advice would you give to a Nursing Home 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.