Free Access No Registration Updated: 2026-06-01

HR Generalist Career Market Report 2026

2,055 active jobs. 930 companies. Median salary $73K. Data from Greenhouse, Lever, Workday, Ashby, SmartRecruiters, Workable, and 14 additional ATS sources. Last computed: 2026-06-01.

2,055
Active Job Openings
930
Companies Hiring
$73K
Median Salary (US)
69%
With Salary Data

About This Report

The HR Generalist market data on this page is updated daily from 800,000+ active job postings across 20 ATS platforms.

Greenhouse Lever Workday Ashby SmartRecruiters Workable + 14 more ATS sources

Salary: Extracted via NLP. Only USD $5K-$3M included. Skills: Named entity recognition, noise-filtered (generic soft skills excluded). Experience: Inferred from title + description. Coverage: 69% of positions include salary data.

Key Findings

Median salary: $73K in the US

Middle 50% of salaries range from $58K to $142K.

Remote roles pay 15% below the US national median

Remote positions in this field tend to be at companies with lower average pay scales, or reflect geographic salary adjustments.

Performance Management is the most-demanded skill at 31%

Benefits Administration demand rose +9.1pp — fastest-growing skill

Target leads hiring with 95 open positions

Biggest salary jump: Manager → Director (+$77K, +92%)

Salary increase: +$77K · Sample: Manager → Director

AI automation risk: medium-high (score 70/100)

Score: 70/100 · AI/LLM demand: 12% of postings

Week-over-week changes reflect dataset expansion, not market surge

Recent growth in tracked postings is from adding new data sources, not a one-week hiring boom. Interpret trend data with this in mind.

Salary by Experience Level

LevelJobsP25MedianP90
Manager49$64K$83K$130K
Junior32$52K$60K$70K
Senior24$43K$69K$106K
Mid-Level18$40K$70K$229K
Director18$118K$160K$250K

What jumps out

Manager → Director: +$77K (92%) — the biggest single-step increase. The salary curve is back-loaded: the largest raises come at transitions where scope changes from executing tasks to owning outcomes, or from owning outcomes to shaping architecture across teams.

Salary by Country

CountryJobsMedianCurrency
United States172$82KUSD
Canada12$95KUSD
Remote7$70KUSD

Work Mode

ModeShare
On-Site2.8%
Remote3.7%
Hybrid1.5%

~80% of postings do not specify work mode. Figures show only positions where it is explicitly stated.

Top Skills in Demand

Performance Management
31%
HRIS
28%
Talent Acquisition
21%
Labor Law
20%
AI/LLM
12%
Benefits Administration
9%
Project Management
8%
Organizational Development
7%
Data Analysis
6%
Bilingual
5%

Skills on the Rise

Benefits Administration ↑+9.1ppHRIS ↑+7.3ppData Analysis ↑+6.2ppBilingual ↑+4.8ppPerformance Management ↑+4.8pp

Declining in Demand

Attention to Detail ↓-20.9ppJournalism ↓-20.8ppExcel ↓-17.0ppScheduling ↓-14.9ppChange Management ↓-9.7pp

Generic skills excluded: Recruiting. These appear in most postings across all roles.

Top Companies Hiring

CompanyOpeningsShare
Target954.6%
Prosidianconsulting472.3%
Boschgroup301.5%
Lextorahlds261.3%
Rakuten261.3%
Amazon251.2%
Fastretailing150.7%
Jobsforhumanity120.6%

Top Countries by Job Volume

CountryJobs
United States792
Canada46
Germany43
United Kingdom41
Remote41
Nigeria34
Japan33
India31

Education Requirements

LevelSharePositions
Associate Degree58.3%824
Master's Degree14.5%205
Bachelor's Degree14.3%202
MBA0.7%10
PhD / Doctorate0.1%2

Certifications

SHRM (9%)PHR (7%)SPHR (4%)MBA (2%)

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