Nurse practitioners

Name: Nurse practitioners: JobMarketHealth score
Creator: JobMarketHealth

SOC 29-1171 · 29-0000 · Score reference month August 2026

Diagnose and treat acute, episodic, or chronic illness, independently or as part of a healthcare team. May focus on health promotion and disease prevention. May order, perform, or interpret diagnostic tests such as lab work and x rays. May prescribe medication. Must be registered nurses who have specialized graduate education.

In short

The national Job Market Health score is in the Strong band for August 2026.

How the score is built Data sources

Job Market Health score

66/ 100

Strong

Stable · -2

Confidence: High
Restated score: 66
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.

$132,300Median annual wageOEWS May 2025

29,400Projected annual openingsBLS Employment Projections 2025-2035

+41.0%Projected growth2025–2035

323,040Total employmentOEWS May 2025

Latest interpretation

What stands out for nurse practitioners

The clearest signals from the latest validated score, outlook and metro data.

Occupation fundamentals is the strongest component

Occupation fundamentals scores 92/100, compared with 43/100 for current demand, a 49-point difference.

JobMarketHealth score components

Long-term growth is projected at 10% or more

BLS projects 29,400 average annual openings and +41.0% employment growth from 2025 to 2035. Projected openings are a modeled annual average, not vacancies open today.

BLS Employment Projections

Largest published metro market

New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ has the largest published metro employment count for nurse practitioners, at 21,680 jobs. The next-largest published metro is Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA with 10,060 jobs. This measures employment scale, not market quality.

BLS OEWS

Local market context

QCEW industry conditions for this occupation’s employment mix

State

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How to read this section

QCEW measures employment and wages by industry, not by occupation. We weight those industry conditions using the published industry mix for this occupation. These figures describe the industries that employ this occupation; they are not direct counts of people working in the occupation or jobs currently open.

Source: BLS QCEW. This section is not part of the national 0 to 100 Job Market Health score. See the methodology.

Compare states for nurse practitionersSide-by-side published industry conditions for two or three states. There is no state-level health score; the 0 to 100 score is national.

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 · 0–100 · by reference month

Latest published values

Aug 2666 / 100

View values: Job Market Health history

Job Market Health history
Reference month	Score / 100
Jan 25	80
Feb 25	80
Mar 25	79
Apr 25	78
May 25	79
Jun 25	78
Jul 25	76
Aug 25	74
Sep 25	73
Oct 25	70
Nov 25	69
Dec 25	67
Jan 26	70
Feb 26	67
Mar 26	68
Apr 26	67
May 26	68
Jun 26	68
Jul 26	68
Aug 26	66

Score components

The three published inputs behind the composite · each 0–100

Current demand43 / 100

Occupation fundamentals92 / 100

Long-term outlook83 / 100

Largest metro markets by employment

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

OEWS May 2025. These occupation counts describe the survey reference period.

Linked metro names open overall job-market profiles.

Compare cities for this career →

Employment · number of jobs

New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ21,680
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA10,060
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX7,310
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD6,590
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN6,530
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH5,990
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX5,970
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA5,950
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL5,810
Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ5,450

Largest metro markets by employment
Metro area	Employment	Jobs per 1,000	Median annual wage
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ	21,680	2.28	$163,340
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	10,060	1.60	$161,470
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX	7,310	1.80	$130,980
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD	6,590	2.27	$135,700
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN	6,530	1.45	$131,740
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH	5,990	2.22	$147,480
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX	5,970	1.81	$134,560
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA	5,950	2.06	$132,500
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL	5,810	2.06	$131,340
Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ	5,450	2.30	$136,270

Education & training

Typical entry requirements · BLS Employment Projections 2025-2035

Typical education: Master's degree
Work experience: None
On-the-job training: None
Projected employment: 474,100 jobs

Top skills

Occupation profile · O*NET 31.0 Database

Active Listening
Complex Problem Solving
Critical Thinking
Reading Comprehension
Active Learning
Judgment and Decision Making
Monitoring
Social Perceptiveness
Speaking
Writing

Also known as: ACNP (Acute Care Nurse Practitioner), Adult Nurse Practitioner, Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN), ARNP Specialist (Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner Specialist), Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP), Family Practice Certified Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner

AI & this occupation

How AI relates to Nurse practitioners work

Across 4 research exposure measures, Nurse practitioners is in the middle technical AI exposure band based on the mean of the available source-specific percentile ranks. Exposure describes how much of the work the studied AI capabilities could technically assist with; it is not a forecast of job loss.

Observed use of Claude for this occupation's tasks is in the higher third of occupations in the Anthropic Economic Index, a dated observed task-exposure benchmark, not conversation share or the share of workers using AI. Its observation window is not recorded in this saved release.

In the task mix derived from the March 27, 2025 Anthropic release, 73.3% followed augmentation patterns (people iterating, validating or learning with AI), based on 8 matched tasks.

JobMarketHealth has not measured an AI effect on this occupation's employment or wages, and these figures do not enter its scores; there is no clear evidence of displacement in the data shown here.

Technical AI exposureMiddle exposureMean of 4 available source-specific percentile ranks (4 measures checked); fixed exposure bands, not a national rank of the composite

Dated Claude task exposureHigher thirdObserved task-exposure benchmark 0.094; observation window not recorded

Business AI use (BTOS Core)24.6%U.S. businesses using AI, two weeks ending 2026-10-04; all industries, not this occupation

Historical task mix (2025)73.3% augmentationMarch 27, 2025 release; 26.7% automation, 8 matched tasks

Measured labor-market effectNot estimatedJobMarketHealth does not attribute employment or wage changes to AI

Exposure measures (kept separate)

GPTs are GPTs exposure (β, GPT-4 rated): 0.48 of 1, national percentile 73 (higher third)
Microsoft AI applicability: 0.14 of 1, national percentile 50 (middle third)
AIOE (Felten, Raj & Seamans): 0.19 (standardized), national percentile 56 (middle third)
OECD AI Capability Gap (lower gap = higher potential exposure): gap 6.4 of 23, national percentile 13 (lower third)

OECD capability gap by domain

As published by the OECD: the gap between what the occupation demands (0-5) and current AI capability in each domain. A lower gap means AI is closer to the requirement (higher potential exposure); 0 means AI already meets it or the domain is not relevant.

Language: gap 1.00 (demand 4.00 of 5)
Social interaction: gap 2.00 (demand 4.00 of 5)
Problem solving: gap 1.75 (demand 3.75 of 5)
Creativity: gap 0.00 (demand 2.00 of 5)
Metacognition & critical thinking: gap 2.00 (demand 4.00 of 5)
Knowledge, learning & memory: gap 1.05 (demand 4.05 of 5)
Vision: gap 0.00 (demand 3.00 of 5)
Manipulation: gap 0.40 (demand 2.40 of 5)
Robotic intelligence: gap 0.00 (demand 1.65 of 5)

National context: what businesses used generative AI for

From the Census 2025-26 BTOS AI Supplement (all industries; businesses whose employees used generative AI). Census did not measure Nurse practitioners specifically.

Writing or editing documents, emails, or communications: 85.4%
Searching for information or technical help: 49.9%
Interpreting, analyzing, translating, or summarizing documents: 44.6%
Information processing, paperwork, or filing: 34.7%

Exposure and observed usage are separate measures and neither equals job loss. Census BTOS figures are business-level surveys and are not occupation-specific. Sources: GPTs are GPTs occupation exposure; Microsoft Working with AI: AI applicability; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE); OECD AI Exposure Measure (AI Capability Gap); Anthropic Economic Index; Census BTOS Core AI Use; Census BTOS AI Supplement 2025-26. These figures do not affect Job Market Health scores. Explore AI & Jobs · How we use AI data.

Sources and methodology

The datasets behind the figures on this page

Job Market Health score: Score for reference month August 2026 · methodology v1.0 · MethodologyScore last recalculated Oct 2, 2026 · First published Sep 29, 2026
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics: Employment, wages and largest metros · OEWS May 2025 · publisher release May 15, 2026 · About this sourceRetrieved Sep 17, 2026
BLS Employment Projections: Projected growth, openings, education and training · BLS Employment Projections 2025-2035 · publisher release Aug 27, 2026 · About this sourceRetrieved Sep 17, 2026
O*NET: Skills, alternate titles and related occupations · O*NET 31.0 Database · publisher release date not verified · About this sourceRetrieved Oct 19, 2026

Values marked “Not published” are suppressed or not published by the source. We leave them blank rather than estimating them. Pipeline status for every source is on Data Status.

Related occupations

O*NET® lists these occupations as related. Each link opens the same published view of score, wages and outlook.

Evidence record

JobMarketHealth derived indicator; not a government statistic. The composite score is national and occupation level.

Occupation: Nurse practitioners
SOC code: 29-1171
Geography: United States
Reference month: August 2026
Published Job Market Health score: 66 / 100
Restated score: 66 / 100
Band: Strong
Current Demand component: 43 / 10050% weight
Occupation Fundamentals component: 92 / 10030% weight
Long-Term Outlook component: 83 / 10020% weight
Confidence: HighAt least 90% of required inputs and occupation-industry mapping are covered.
Methodology version: v1.0
Source vintage: Annual: EP-2025-2035|CPS-25b-2025|OEWS-2020-2025
Source vintage: Monthly calculated at: 2026-10-02T15:32:31.597Z
First published at: Sep 29, 2026
Recalculated at: Oct 2, 2026
Canonical record URL: https://jobmarkethealth.com/occupations/nurse-practitioners#evidence-record
Derived by: JobMarketHealth

Methodology BLS JOLTS BLS CES BLS Employment Projections How to cite National Job Market Health release, August 2026

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.