New grad RN jobs and nurse residency programs in New York

A quarter of New York RNs earn less than $45.60 an hour ($94,840 a year) and half earn more than $52.62. First-year offers tend to sit near the lower figure, since hospital pay scales usually rise with experience.

That puts New York 6th of the 50 states and DC for median RN pay.

$7.02 an hour separates the 25th percentile from the median here, close to the typical gap across the states.

The largest RN job market touching New York is the New York-Newark-Jersey City area, with 197,740 RNs; that count includes nurses in New Jersey.

When people search for new grad RN jobs in New York, the place they name most often is New York City.

The New York State Board of Nursing licenses RNs in New York.

New York is not in the Nurse Licensure Compact, so you need a New York license to work here whatever license you hold elsewhere. If you studied in another state, you can apply to the New York State Board of Nursing for licensure by examination and take the NCLEX for New York directly, or pass in your school's state and apply here by endorsement afterward.

Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Vermont, next door, are compact states, which matters if you might live on one side of the line and work on the other.

Yes, with conditions. New York issues a limited permit to graduates who have met every requirement except the NCLEX and have never taken it. You work as a graduate nurse at the facility named on the permit, with an RN on the unit. It lasts up to a year, or until 10 days after you learn you did not pass. Graduates of New York programs who applied for licensure and the permit may also practice under supervision for 90 days right after graduation.

Source: New York State Education Department, Office of the Professions, Limited Permits, read October 2026. The permit makes it legal; whether you can use it depends on the employer, since not every hospital starts graduate nurses before they are licensed. Ask the recruiter.

29 of the 50 states and DC allow something like this, each with its own limits. See every state's rule.

In 2025, 11,418 first-time, U.S.-educated candidates took the NCLEX-RN for a New York license and 82.3% passed, 4.4 points below the national rate of 86.7%. That ranks New York 47th of the 50 states and DC.

Against the 60 new-grad programs we track here, that is about 190 new test takers per program, well above the national figure of about 114. Expect more competition for each residency spot, and look at new-grad RN jobs outside residencies as well.

The exam is the same everywhere; the rate tells you about the graduates who tested here, not about your own chances. See pass rates in every state.

New York pays RNs more than any of its neighboring states. Pennsylvania has the most new-grad programs on our list (62).