Career
Embalmers
Prepare bodies for funerals.
$58,780
Median pay
+0.7%
Job growth, 2025–35
700
Openings a year
Associate's degree
Typical education
2 years
Typical time after high school
Here's what you actually need to know.
The work
What people in this job do
- Conform to laws of health and sanitation and ensure that legal requirements concerning embalming are met.
- Apply cosmetics to impart lifelike appearance to the deceased.
- Join lips, using needles and thread or wire.
- Close incisions, using needles and sutures.
- Incise stomach and abdominal walls and probe internal organs, using trocar, to withdraw blood and waste matter from organs.
The outlook
How the forecast changed this year
The deeper question
What kind of person does this path ask you to become?
What this work centers on
O*NET interest profile, scored 1–7.
The work
Do you want most of your days spent on objects & tools, then information & systems?
Responsibility
Are you willing to be the one responsible for this?
“Conform to laws of health and sanitation and ensure that legal requirements concerning embalming are met.”
Development
What would you need to build over the next 5–10 years?
Speaking, Active Listening, Writing, Time Management.
Trade-offs
What does it ask of you in exchange?
2 years of education after high school (associate's degree), for a median of $58,780 a year and 700 openings nationally each year.
Paths in
Degrees that lead here
- Funeral Service and Mortuary Science, GeneralCIP 12.0301
- Mortuary Science and Embalming/EmbalmerCIP 12.0303
Paths across
Careers that use similar skills
- Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arrangers$55,010 · +3.0%
- Funeral Attendants$35,680 · +2.6%
- Funeral Home Managers$78,790 · +4.1%
- Crematory Operators$43,650 · +3.1%
- Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses$64,400 · +3.0%
Ask anything about this career.
“Would this make sense if I don't want to sit at a desk all day?” Answers will come from the sources on this page, with citations. Coming soon.
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Sources
- BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- BLS Employment Projections, 2024–34 (archived), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- O*NET 31.0 Database (August 2026), National Center for O*NET Development / U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 Crosswalk, NCES and BLS. Retrieved 2026-10-01.