Job market for new nurses in New York City

U.S.A. New York

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Another new group of nurses are soon to graduate in the next few weeks.

These graduates are entering a tight job market, a very tight job market. Where I work, we are receiving numerous unsolicited resumes. I wish the nursing schools would be honest with the soon to be graduates. NYC and the immediate vicinity is saturated with nurses. It is so tight, that even being able to intern or volunteer for free is not easy. I wish the schools would work to develop "practice ready" nurses. If the schools did a better job training nurses for entry level practice, employers might be more willing to take on a new nurse. The schools of nursing need to explain to their students that the jobs available to them are not hospital based but community based (clinics, LTC, HH, etc.) It is sad to see so many disillusioned new nurses but the facts are the facts...positions are not opening up as before. Even positions in LTC are hard to get. If you have any advise or ideas, please share.

Guess its different in the city then out east.

Almost every hospital in Suffolk that I applied to (which is many) took applications in person except for St Catherines.

It must be different because unless you have direct business in a NYC hospital such as being a patient, family member, staff or some such your chances of getting onto a floor/unit to see a NM or even to HR offices are nil to none. It is the same for basically any sort of job with these NYC healthcare systems.

As the number of unaffiliated/community hospitals shrink in NYC things are only going to get worse. Indeed IIRC there aren't any left in Manhattan at least. Everything is part of Mount Sinai, NS-LIJ, NYP, HHC or whatever. Things are slightly better in the boroughs but the way things are going who knows how long that will last.

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I am an RN and I know quite a few nurses in NY and some of those are instructors. We have had this discussion quite frequently about new grads coming out of school and unable to find jobs. From our knowledge and experiences, I can tell you the only way to find a job is by sending in your resume to the HR office. That is where the weeding out of applicants takes place. Can you imagine if nursing applicants just shows up in HR office- they would not be open to that. I can assure you that the resume handed to HR person will be put aside with all the other applications. In fact I know of an experienced RN that was looking to be hired at a hospital and was asking one of my friends if its possible to speak to her manager about hiring her. She told her she would first have to put in a resume online and she will take it from there.And sadly to say not everyone that works in HR are nurses. They are usually administrative assistant types who will look over the online applications and if she thinks it is a fit she will then pass it on to the NM.

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There are opportunities for New grads, they are just hard to come by and requires a lot of months of applying to get called in for interview for hospitals. Clinics and home care agencies hire new grads but most new RNs want to work in hospitals. It took me 1 month to get a job at a pediatric clinic, this with no nursing experience except non-nursing work for 4 years as a child development aide. In 7 months after this then I got called for interview at 3 hospitals and eventually hired at one of them. It was all by applying online, as I had no connections. It is frustrating waiting to be called for hospital interview, however there are jobs available faster if one does not only focus on hospital setting.

Hey, where did you find that job in the clinic? I am finishing my BSN up in Hunter, starting Aug and moving to NYC from NJ, so I do need to find a job not too far. I've thought about also getting my license in nj but I'm not sure if I can keep the new york license and get a nj one at the same time? These are things I still have to investigate. Do you suggest sites like indeed? I am open to anything in the the mean time to get some experience, I can always apply for hospital later, like you said.

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Specializes in Women's Health, OBGYN, Stepdown, Critical Care.

Estrella would you mind sending the list of clinics you researched or googled, thank you.

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

You can be licensed in both NY & NJ at the same time. The only "restriction" is if you live in a compact state (NLC) you can't be licensed in 2 compact states if you are a compact state resident. If you live in NY/NJ/PA it's a non-issue. You can have licenses in all 50 states if you so desire

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You can be licensed in both NY & NJ at the same time. The only "restriction" is if you live in a compact state (NLC) you can't be licensed in 2 compact states if you are a compact state resident. If you live in NY/NJ/PA it's a non-issue. You can have licenses in all 50 states if you so desire

Should I have applied for both new york and new jersey? I only applied for NY and figured I'd apply for NJ after, that's good to know though thank you!

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.
Should I have applied for both new york and new jersey? I only applied for NY and figured I'd apply for NJ after, that's good to know though thank you!

You can only apply for license by examination in a single state. Once licensed in NY then you can pay the $200 or so to endorse to NJ. You will need a new fingerprint & background check for NJBoN unless you were an LPN or CHHA in NJ (then you would just need a new criminal background check)

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Specializes in MedSurg, PACU, Maternal/Child Health.

Blondie, look on craigslist and indeed.com there is where most clinics post their openings. Also try idealist.org . I did not look for any specific clinic for my first (pre-hospital) job. My point in mentioning clinics was that new grads should be open to any RN job and not just hospital as limiting yourself to just hospital will have you jobless for a several months at the least. Once you have either NJ or NY license with NCLEX you can apply to other state by paying $200. You just have to take NCLEX in only one state then endorse your license to any other state. You can have more than one license (of different states) at a time.

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Specializes in MedSurg, PACU, Maternal/Child Health.

Idani, I did not look up any specific clinic or home care. Just look on craigslist or indeed.com and see what you find. Also I see alot of post for school nurses with the NYC Health Department. My point in mentioning clinic and home care was to emphasize that when one is new grad one cannot only limit herself/himself to just hospitals as NYC and other cities have too many new grads and not many jobs want to train so many new people. Eventually you will get into hospital but until then there's other RN jobs out there, and who knows maybe you will like being RN in alternative settings and you will no longer want hospital.

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Specializes in MedSurg, PACU, Maternal/Child Health.

Denicu, Very true. I am working at a hospital now since a year ago and I had two friends who were seeking my help getting into the hospital as RNs. However our department Director of Nursing told me to "tell them to apply online" or to attend the open house. We had an open house in February however the DON and HR were only taking experienced RNs (of which only 3 showed up and the other 40 people showing up were new grads). The new grads resumes "were put on file in case something opens up". I feel bad the job situation is how it is and I think schools should limit their enrollment until the job market can accomodate all new grads. Its kind of irresponsible to graduate so many hopeful new RNs and then there are few jobs for them.

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