Nursing jobs in Chicago: pay by role, who is hiring and which license you need

Chicago is the third-largest nursing labor market in the country, and the numbers behind the search "nursing jobs in Chicago" are bigger than most people expect. The Bureau of Labor Statistics defines the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metropolitan area as nine Illinois counties (Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will) and four in northwest Indiana (Jasper, Lake, Newton and Porter), and its May 2025 wage survey counts 100,240 registered nurses and about 164,040 nurses and nursing staff at work across it. This guide covers what each nursing role earns in the metro against the Illinois and national figures, where the open jobs are right now, which license you need (Illinois is not a compact state, and that matters at the Indiana line), and how the roles are projected to grow.

How big is the nursing workforce in Chicago?

Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations are 6.2% of the metro's 4,513,280 jobs (279,160 people), almost exactly the national share of 6.3%, and healthcare support occupations add another 204,740 (4.5%, a little under the 5.1% national share). Registered nurses are by far the largest nursing occupation. The BLS estimates for May 2025:

The metro's four Indiana counties are inside the first column but not the second, so the share overstates Illinois slightly; even so, roughly seven in ten of Illinois's registered nurses work in the Chicago area. Cook County alone holds most of the metro's hospitals, but the suburban systems in DuPage, Lake and Kane counties are large employers in their own right.

What nurses earn in Chicago

The table shows the BLS mean and median annual wage for each role in the Chicago metro for May 2025, with the Illinois statewide mean and the national mean beside them. The hourly figure is the BLS mean hourly wage for the metro.

Three things stand out. First, registered nurses in the metro average $97,930 a year ($47.08 an hour), about 4% above the Illinois statewide mean of $94,360, and the metro's median RN wage of $100,490 is a touch above the national median of $97,550: a typical Chicago RN earns about what a typical RN earns anywhere in the country, while the metro's mean sits 3% below the national mean because the top of the national distribution is pulled up by California. Second, the support and practical roles do better here than nationally: licensed practical nurses average $77,430, 15% above the national mean of $67,050, and nursing assistants $46,610, 9% above the national $42,700; across all healthcare support occupations the metro's mean hourly wage is $20.79 against $19.62 nationally. Third, nurse practitioners average $133,040, slightly above the Illinois mean and 3% below the national mean; across all healthcare practitioner occupations the metro's mean hourly wage is $51.06 against $52.26 nationally.

These are survey means and medians, not offers. Night and weekend differentials, overtime, charge pay and sign-on bonuses sit on top of base pay and vary by employer; see how shift differentials work, and for the statewide picture, nurse jobs and pay in Illinois. For the whole ranking of states, the highest-paying states for nurses puts Illinois in the middle of the table.

Where the open nursing jobs are right now

Betterleap's job board counts open postings on hospital and health-system career sites. As of September 26, 2026, the city of Chicago and the suburbs the board lists separately carried 1,758 open healthcare postings, 448 of them for registered nurses. Every city links to its live listings; the Chicago hub is the place to start.

The city of Chicago itself had 964 open postings from 28 employers, with Evanston (NorthShore's home) and the western and northwestern suburbs adding the rest. Statewide, Illinois employers had 8,901 open postings from 74 employers on the same date, and the metro's Indiana side is counted under Indiana. Browse the metro by role: RN jobs in Chicago, LPN jobs, CNA jobs and nurse practitioner jobs, or widen to every RN job in Illinois and Indiana.

Health systems posting the most jobs in Illinois

Counted by open postings on each system's own career site, statewide, as of September 26, 2026. A system that lists every unit and shift separately ranks higher than one that posts one evergreen requisition per role, and two of the biggest posters (OSF HealthCare and Carle) are downstate. Chicago's own systems in the list: NorthShore Edward-Elmhurst Health (1,192), Advocate Health (501), University of Chicago Hospitals (495), Trinity Health (319).

Which license do you need to work in Chicago?

Illinois is not a member of the Nurse Licensure Compact. A multistate license from another compact state does not let you practice in Chicago; you need an Illinois RN or LPN license from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR), which licenses nurses through its Board of Nursing. The rules under the Illinois Nurse Practice Act set out what that takes.

• Licensure by endorsement (already licensed in another state). You file the endorsement application with the $50 fee, proof of graduation from an approved nursing program, proof that you passed the NCLEX (or the older State Board Test Pool Examination), verification of your original and current licenses, and fingerprints taken within the 60 days before you apply and processed by an Illinois Livescan vendor (out-of-state residents can be printed where they live, but the processing is Illinois's). Nurses educated outside the United States add a credentials evaluation and, if English is not their first language, a TOEFL or IELTS score.
• Working while you wait. A temporary endorsement permit ($25) lets you work pending the permanent license; the rules require IDFPR to issue it within 14 days of a complete application, and it ends when the permanent license is issued. You need a current active license in at least one U.S. jurisdiction to get one.
• New graduates. The application fee for licensure by examination is the same $50, plus the testing fee paid to the exam vendor. Our guide to how to become a nurse in Illinois walks through the program, exam and application steps.
• Renewal. Illinois RN licenses expire on May 31 of every even-numbered year and LPN licenses on January 31 of every odd-numbered year; the renewal fee is $40 a year (so $80 for the two-year cycle) and each renewal needs 20 hours of approved continuing education. APRNs pay $125 to apply and complete 80 hours per cycle.
• The Indiana line. Indiana is a compact state. A nurse who lives in Illinois and takes a job in Hammond, Munster or Merrillville needs an Indiana license by endorsement (single-state, because a multistate license requires primary residence in a compact state), and a nurse who lives in Indiana and works in Chicago needs an Illinois license regardless of what Indiana issued. The compact states list shows who is in and who is out, and transferring a nursing license to another state covers endorsement in detail.

Outlook for nursing roles

The BLS publishes its ten-year projections nationally, not by metro, and they apply to Chicago as to anywhere else. Registered nursing grows faster than the average for all occupations, nurse practitioner roles grow much faster, and the LPN and nursing-assistant occupations grow slowly but turn over heavily, which is why openings stay high.

If you are early in your career, getting your first nursing job as a new grad and new grad RN salary by state cover the first-year questions; how travel nurse stipends work explains the weekly packages travel contracts in the metro are quoted in.

Sources

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics Query System: Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN, Illinois and National estimates, May 2025, read 23 October 2026.
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Midwest Information Office, Occupational Employment and Wages in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, May 2025, released 23 July 2026, read 23 October 2026.
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Registered Nurses, Nurse Anesthetists, Nurse Midwives, and Nurse Practitioners, Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses and Nursing Assistants and Orderlies, 2025 pay and 2025-35 projections, read 23 October 2026.
• National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Nurse Licensure Compact member states map, current status, read 23 October 2026.
• Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, Nurses: applications, renewals and rules, read 23 October 2026.
• Illinois Administrative Code, Title 68, Part 1300 (Nurse Practice Act rules): Section 1300.30 Fees, Section 1300.40 Renewals and Section 1300.320 RN Licensure by Endorsement, in force October 2026, read 23 October 2026.
• Betterleap job board, open postings on hospital and health-system career sites for Chicago, its suburbs and Illinois, counted September 26, 2026.