--- title: "Licensed Practical Nurse" description: "Care for ill, injured, or convalescing patients or persons with disabilities in hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, private homes, group homes, and…" canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/licensed-practical-nurse" last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z" --- # Licensed Practical Nurse **Category:** Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · **SOC code:** 29-2061 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 29-2061.00 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. Also advertised as: Charge Nurse; Clinic Licensed Practical Nurse (Clinic LPN); Clinic Nurse; Home Health Licensed Practical Nurse (Home Health LPN); Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN); Office Nurse; Pediatric LPN (Pediatric Licensed Practical Nurse); Private Duty Nurse. ## At a glance - **Median annual wage:** $64,400 (BLS OEWS, May 2025) - **Median hourly wage:** $30.96/hr - **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $49,740 to $83,440, with the middle half between $59,000 and $76,030 - **Total US employment:** 648,410 - **Typical entry education:** Certificate - **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed" - **Projected growth:** +2.6% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034) - **Annual job openings:** 54,400 openings a year - **AI-resilience score:** 46/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure ## Pay National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 648,410 US jobs. | Percentile | Annual wage | | --- | --- | | 10th | $49,740 | | 25th | $59,000 | | 50th (median) | $64,400 | | 75th | $76,030 | | 90th | $83,440 | | Mean (average) | $67,050 | ### Pay by state The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there. | State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | WA | $83,150 | $77,701 | 6,780 | | AK | $80,800 | $78,938 | 290 | | OR | $80,470 | $77,853 | 4,260 | | MA | $80,220 | $75,853 | 13,210 | | RI | $80,090 | $78,305 | 1,290 | | CA | $79,750 | $72,029 | 82,850 | | NH | $77,110 | $74,027 | 2,220 | | AZ | $77,070 | $76,552 | 6,530 | | NV | $76,160 | $76,176 | 3,350 | | DC | $75,740 | $68,917 | 1,040 | | NJ | $75,160 | $69,078 | 17,410 | | IL | $75,000 | $75,032 | 17,440 | | MD | $74,660 | $71,133 | 9,560 | | CO | $73,880 | $71,692 | 4,920 | | CT | $73,690 | $71,122 | 8,540 | 39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/licensed-practical-nurse/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/licensed-practical-nurse. ## Outlook BLS projects employment to move from 651,400 in the 2024–2034 base year to 668,500 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 17,100 jobs, or +2.6%. About as fast as average: 2.6% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 54,400 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034. ## How to get in - **Typical entry education:** Postsecondary nondegree award (BLS Employment Projections). - **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed". - **Related work experience typically required:** None. - **Typical on-the-job training:** None. ### Education people in this job actually hold O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above. | Education level | Share of workers | | --- | --- | | Some College Courses | 38.2% | | Post-Secondary Certificate | 34.8% | | Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 15.9% | | Bachelor's Degree | 11.1% | ## What the work involves - Measure and record patients' vital signs, such as height, weight, temperature, blood pressure, pulse, or respiration. - Answer patients' calls and determine how to assist them. - Provide basic patient care or treatments, such as taking temperatures or blood pressures, dressing wounds, treating bedsores, giving enemas or douches, rubbing with alcohol, massaging, or performing catheterizations. - Observe patients, charting and reporting changes in patients' conditions, such as adverse reactions to medication or treatment, and taking any necessary action. - Collect samples, such as blood, urine, or sputum from patients, and perform routine laboratory tests on samples. - Evaluate nursing intervention outcomes, conferring with other healthcare team members as necessary. - Work as part of a healthcare team to assess patient needs, plan and modify care, and implement interventions. - Administer prescribed medications or start intravenous fluids, noting times and amounts on patients' charts. ## Skills and knowledge ### Essential skills - Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Speaking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Monitoring — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Reading Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Critical Thinking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Active Learning — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Writing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Learning Strategies — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Transferable skills These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site. - Service Orientation — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Social Perceptiveness — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Coordination — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Time Management — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Instructing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Systems Analysis — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Knowledge areas - Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - English Language — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Psychology — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Medicine and Dentistry — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Administration and Management — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Education and Training — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Abilities - Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Speech Clarity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ## Who it suits O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Social (S), Realistic (R), Conventional (C). | Interest area | Score (1–7) | | --- | --- | | S — Social | 5.50 | | R — Realistic | 4.58 | | C — Conventional | 4.58 | | I — Investigative | 3.67 | | E — Enterprising | 2.13 | | A — Artistic | 1.05 | ### Personality fit These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job. | Type | Fit score (0–100) | | --- | --- | | ISFJ | 81.2 | | ESFJ | 71.2 | | ISTJ | 69.6 | | ESTJ | 67.8 | | ISFP | 57.1 | Best-fitting types: ISFJ. ## Related occupations O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order. - [Registered Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/registered-nurse) — median $97,550 - [Paramedic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/paramedic) — median $60,600 - [Nurse Practitioner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nurse-practitioner) — median $132,300 - [Acute Care Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/acute-care-nurse) — median $97,550 - [Nursing Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nursing-assistant) — median $42,260 - [Critical Care Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/critical-care-nurse) — median $97,550 - [Emergency Medical Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/emergency-medical-technician) — median $44,470 - [Clinical Nurse Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/clinical-nurse-specialist) — median $97,550 - [Medical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-assistant) — median $45,690 - [Home Health Aide](https://nuecareer.com/careers/home-health-aide) — median $35,800 ### Licensed Practical Nurse compared with - [LPN vs RN](https://nuecareer.com/careers/lpn-vs-rn) — side by side on BLS wage percentiles, projected growth, openings and entry requirements - [LPN vs CNA](https://nuecareer.com/careers/lpn-vs-cna) — side by side on BLS wage percentiles, projected growth, openings and entry requirements - [LPN vs Medical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/lpn-vs-medical-assistant) — side by side on BLS wage percentiles, projected growth, openings and entry requirements ## Sources - **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html - **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/ - **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/ - **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/ - **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area --- This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105). O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/licensed-practical-nurse