This can be glimpsed from the 2008 employment data for all registered nurses in the United States which was at 2.6 million. Currently, a projection of 581,500 open positions for registered nurses is seen for all States across the country while hundreds of thousands more are expected to be filled up resulting from experienced or retiring nurses who will be leaving their jobs.

Another major aspect creating this projected growth of employment for registered nurses is the rapidly increasing elderly population in the country which needs more nursing care and assistance in hospitals and other healthcare service facilities. Another is the technological advancement that is helping in medical diagnosis and treatment that leads to more development of health care programs that allow more various health issues to be addressed. Registered nurse jobs will remain one of the largest occupations in the industry and the one of the fastest in employment rate for most professionals across all hiring industries in the US.

Even as hospitals have the largest number of registered nurses, they remain to have the slowest employment growth rate. Physicians’ offices or independently-run clinics remain at the top with the highest employment growth rate. This is seen as a direct result of hospitals accommodating less in-patients (patients who stay in hospitals over 24 hours from admittance) because of the high cost of treatment. Conversely, the other smaller healthcare service facilities are doing more outpatient treatments such as rehabilitation, chemotherapy, physical therapy, one-day surgery, and other outpatient medical assistance and care.

The preference as well as the need for long-term care of the elderly population in home health facilities or residential health facilities is another factor that is considered in this trend. More registered nurse jobs will also be created in nursing homes and residential care facilities as hospitals make direct referrals for early discharged patients due to financial constraints. Rehabilitation centers extending long-term care and therapies to patients who suffered head injuries, and other care units that cater to patients needing special care such as Alzheimer’s patients will also open opportunities for hiring of more registered nurses.

Competition for employment among registered nurses is common and higher in small healthcare service facilities which have regular working hours and better working environments than most hospitals. On the other hand, hospitals are facing problems in hiring and retaining qualified registered nurses because of the longer hours, more stressful working environment, and the shifting schedules. This made some hospitals create attractive employment programs to lure in more qualified applicants for registered nurse jobs. These programs integrate signing bonuses, subsidized trainings, advance education, and better work schedules. Clinical nurse specialists, nurse anesthetists, nurse-midwives, and nurses practitioners—considered the advanced practice specialties will similarly be in high demand, particularly in rural areas and inner cities where medical assistance is much needed.

In a May 2009 data, general medical and surgical hospitals had the highest employment for registered nurses with close to a million and a half. They had an annual mean wage of $67,740. Physicians’ offices or independent clinics had 223,970 registered nurses with $67,290 annual mean wage. Home health care services had 134, 420 with an annual rate of $63,300, followed with nursing care facilities with 128,420 registered nurses having $59,320 annual mean wage, and last, the outpatient care centers with 81,230 employed and $65,690 in annual mean wage. The top paying States for RNs were California with an annual mean wage of $85,080; Massachusetts with $81,780; Hawaii with $80,020; Maryland with $76,330; and New Jersey with $74,990.

Across the US, the concentration for registered nurse jobs varies. South Dakota and Massachusetts with an employment of 10,530 and 83,060, respectively, had twenty-six nurses each State per thousand workers. Mississippi and Rhode Island with 28,030 and 11,630 employment each, had twenty-five RNs per thousand workers; while Delaware with an employment of 10,220 had twenty-four RNs per thousand of their workers.