Career
Funeral home managers
Guide families and run a business during their hardest days, with care in every detail.
Here's what you actually need to know.
The work
What people in this job do
- Consult with families or friends of the deceased to arrange funeral details, such as obituary notice wording, casket selection, or plans for services.
- Schedule funerals, burials, or cremations.
- Deliver death certificates to medical facilities or offices to obtain signatures from legally authorized persons.
- Offer counsel and comfort to families and friends of the deceased.
- Monitor funeral service operations to ensure that they comply with applicable policies, regulations, and laws.
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 persuasion & leadership, then information & systems?
Responsibility
Are you willing to be the one responsible for this?
“Consult with families or friends of the deceased to arrange funeral details, such as obituary notice wording, casket selection, or plans for services.”
Development
What would you need to build over the next 5–10 years?
Service Orientation, Social Perceptiveness, Active Listening, 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 $78,790 a year and 2,600 openings nationally each year.
Paths in
Degrees that lead here
- Funeral Service and Mortuary Science, GeneralCIP 12.0301
- Funeral Direction/ServiceCIP 12.0302
- Funeral Service and Mortuary Science, OtherCIP 12.0399
Paths across
Careers that use similar skills
- Morticians, Undertakers, and Funeral Arrangers$55,010 · +3.0%
- Funeral Attendants$35,680 · +2.6%
- Crematory Operators$43,650 · +3.1%
- Social and Community Service Managers$80,390 · +7.2%
- Embalmers$58,780 · +0.7%
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.