Human resources managers

SOC 11-3121 · 11-0000 · Reference month July 2026

Plan, direct, or coordinate human resources activities and staff of an organization.

In short

As of July 2026, Human resources managers have a Job Market Health score of 51/100, classified as Balanced. This score is our derived indicator, not a government statistic.

The published median annual wage is $149,280.

BLS projects about 16,800 average annual openings and +5.5% employment growth over the 2025-2035 projection period. Projected openings are a modeled yearly average, not jobs open today.

Job Market Health score

51/ 100
Balanced

Stable · -2

Confidence
High
Restated score
51
Methodology
v1.0
Geography
US
  • At least 90% of required inputs and occupation-industry mapping are covered.

Job Market Health scores are derived indicators based on published data, informational only, not a forecast or guarantee.

$149,280Median annual wageOEWS May 2025
16,800Projected annual openingsBLS Employment Projections 2025-2035
+5.5%Projected growth2025–2035
220,660Total employmentOEWS May 2025

How to read this page

The score is a national composite from 0 to 100 that weights near term hiring demand at 50 percent, the occupation's own employment fundamentals at 30 percent, and long-term outlook at 20 percent. Wages and occupation profile details are context shown alongside it, not score inputs. See the full methodology.

Median annual wage and metro employment come from BLS OEWS, which is annual. Projected annual openings and projected growth come from BLS Employment Projections and describe the published projection horizon, so they are not a count of jobs open today. Values shown as not published are suppressed by the source rather than filled in here.

Job Market Health trend

Published composite score by reference month

Score components

The three published inputs behind the composite

Current demand35
Occupation fundamentals72
Long-term outlook59

Largest metro markets by employment

OEWS metro employment, where the jobs are, not a quality ranking

Largest metro markets by employment
Metro areaEmploymentJobs per 1,000Median annual wage
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ18,4801.95$185,100
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN10,8102.40$156,770
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA9,0701.45$168,400
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX7,9701.97$140,890
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH6,4802.40$184,990
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV6,2802.00$177,960
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX5,8901.79$142,110
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA5,3001.83$161,250
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA4,9602.09$209,340
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD4,1901.45$154,490

Education & training

Typical entry requirements · BLS Employment Projections 2025-2035

Typical education
Bachelor's degree
Work experience
5 years or more
On-the-job training
None
Projected employment
237,400 jobs

Top skills

Occupation profile · O*NET 31.0 Database

  • Active Listening
  • Management of Personnel Resources
  • Reading Comprehension
  • Speaking
  • Coordination
  • Writing
  • Active Learning
  • Complex Problem Solving
  • Critical Thinking
  • Judgment and Decision Making

Also known as: Employee Relations Manager, HR Admin Director (Human Resources Administration Director), HR Director (Human Resources Director), HR Manager (Human Resources Manager), HR Ops Manager (Human Resources Operations Manager), HR VP (Human Resources Vice President)

Sources & releases

Every figure above traces to a published release

Wages
OEWS May 2025 · released May 1, 2025 · retrieved Sep 13, 2026
Projections
BLS Employment Projections 2025-2035 · released Sep 1, 2025 · retrieved Sep 13, 2026
Occupation profile
O*NET 31.0 Database · retrieved Sep 13, 2026
Score recalculated
Sep 13, 2026
First published
Sep 13, 2026
Data generated
Sep 16, 2026

Values marked “Not published” are suppressed or not published by the source. We leave them blank rather than estimating them.

Keep going

Learn how to judge a market from these numbers in how to tell if a job market is healthy, or why projected growth and annual openings often disagree in projected growth vs projected annual openings. Coverage, revisions and limits are explained on about the data.

The datasets behind these figures, and what each one can and cannot show, are set out on data sources.