---
title: "Public Relations Manager"
description: "Plan, direct, or coordinate activities designed to create or maintain a favorable public image or raise issue awareness for their organization or client."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/public-relations-manager"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Public Relations Manager

**Category:** Management · **SOC code:** 11-2032 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 11-2032.00

Plan, direct, or coordinate activities designed to create or maintain a favorable public image or raise issue awareness for their organization or client.

Also advertised as: Communications Director; Communications Manager; Community Relations Director; PR Director (Public Relations Director); Public Affairs Director.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $146,910 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $70.63/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $82,410 to $284,990, with the middle half between $106,580 and $204,520
- **Total US employment:** 74,850
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +5.7% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 6,100 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 35/100 — 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 74,850 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $82,410 |
| 25th | $106,580 |
| 50th (median) | $146,910 |
| 75th | $204,520 |
| 90th | $284,990 |
| Mean (average) | $164,760 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DC | $197,600 | $179,798 | 7,410 |
| NY | $180,880 | $167,604 | 7,710 |
| VA | $176,340 | $174,414 | 2,610 |
| NJ | $174,980 | $160,820 | 2,420 |
| MA | $171,740 | $162,391 | 2,170 |
| CA | $167,980 | $151,716 | 9,400 |
| ME | $166,940 | $172,014 | Not published by BLS |
| CO | $162,870 | $158,046 | Not published by BLS |
| WA | $159,440 | $148,991 | 1,610 |
| RI | $156,080 | $152,601 | 210 |
| CT | $154,210 | $148,837 | 890 |
| DE | $153,010 | $153,304 | 170 |
| MD | $149,380 | $142,322 | 1,530 |
| MN | $139,040 | $140,984 | 1,230 |
| GA | $134,500 | $139,678 | 1,540 |

34 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 49 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/public-relations-manager/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/public-relations-manager.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 80,800 in the 2025–2035 base year to 85,400 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 4,600 jobs, or +5.7%. Faster than average: 5.7% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 6,100 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** 5 years or more.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

## What the work involves

- Establish and maintain effective working relationships with clients, government officials, and media representatives and use these relationships to develop new business opportunities.
- Identify main client groups and audiences, determine the best way to communicate publicity information to them, and develop and implement a communication plan.
- Develop, implement, or maintain crisis communication plans.
- Write interesting and effective press releases, prepare information for media kits, and develop and maintain company internet or intranet web pages.
- Manage communications budgets.
- Draft speeches for company executives and arrange interviews and other forms of contact for them.
- Formulate policies and procedures related to public information programs, working with public relations executives.
- Direct activities of external agencies, establishments, or departments that develop and implement communication strategies and information programs.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Speaking — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.0 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.

- Social Perceptiveness — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.6 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
- Negotiation — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Communications and Media — importance 4.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sales and Marketing — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Fluency of Ideas — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.0 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 Enterprising (E), Conventional (C), Social (S).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| E — Enterprising | 7.00 |
| C — Conventional | 4.39 |
| S — Social | 4.18 |
| A — Artistic | 3.67 |
| I — Investigative | 2.34 |
| R — Realistic | 1.00 |

### 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) |
| --- | --- |
| ENFJ | 74.5 |
| ESFJ | 69.2 |
| ENTJ | 66.6 |
| ESFP | 64.7 |
| ENFP | 63.1 |

Best-fitting types: ENFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Public Relations Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/public-relations-specialist) — median $74,750
- [Advertising and Promotions Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/advertising-and-promotions-manager) — median $133,660
- [Market Research Analyst and Marketing Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/market-research-analyst-and-marketing-specialist) — median $78,760
- [Management Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/management-analyst) — median $101,860
- [Marketing Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/marketing-manager) — median $166,790
- [Fundraising Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fundraising-manager) — median $125,470
- [Social and Community Service Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/social-and-community-service-manager) — median $80,390
- [Human Resources Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/human-resources-manager) — median $149,280
- [Search Marketing Strategist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/search-marketing-strategist) — median $78,760
- [General and Operations Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/general-and-operations-manager) — median $105,770

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 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, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 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 31.0 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/public-relations-manager