RN Salary and Projected Job growth
RN Salary
Since a registered nurse is the most in-demand healthcare occupation, and one of the fastest growing careers in the U.S., those in this occupation can expect to see their salaries and benefits increase in the coming years. Sign-on bonuses, tuition reimbursement and more flexible hours are being offered to nurses to try and recruit them to work in their facilities. Just as an example of how quickly an RN salary is increasing, let’s take a look at the median salary for 2008 ($57,208) and the median salary for 2009 ($63,504). It was predicted that in 2010 the RN salary would increase another 4% with a new median RN salary of $66,044.
There is such a high demand for nurses right now because of the shortage of nurses within healthcare facilities. Some employers blame this shortage on the fact that the aging RN workforce is retiring and there are not enough younger, new RNs to fill the positions. The increase in the RN salary is only one of the perks that the industry is giving out to try and attract more RNs into the workforce. Hospitals are offering things such as family-friendly work schedules or subsidized training. Some are even experimenting with online bidding to fill open shifts. This way, a nurse can volunteer for the shifts that he or she wants at premium wages. This will greatly decrease the amount of mandatory overtime that some nurses are being forced to work due to the shortage in staff. Because of these perks, there has been an increase in enrollment in nursing programs. Students are now seeking jobs with stable employment because of the economy.
Of course, it is not a myth that an RN with at least a bachelor’s degree will have better job prospects than a nurse that does not have a bachelor’s. The most high-demand nurses are the four advanced practice specialists; clinical nurse specialists, nurse practitioners, midwives and nurse anesthetists. Although these nurses may receive the better job prospects, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has estimated that jobs for RNs will grow 23% between 2006 and 2016. That’s 587,000 new positions that will open up within those six years.
