> This is the markdown version of https://www.classet.ai/use-cases/healthcare/chicago > Learn more at https://www.classet.ai AI Recruiting for Chicago Healthcare # Staff your Chicago healthcare facility faster Joy phone-interviews CNAs, nurses and caregivers the moment they apply and captures Illinois certification, registry and shift answers before your recruiter calls. [Get a Demo](/demo?ref=use-case-healthcare-chicago-hero)[Try an Interview](/interviews) Get Started 5.0 on G2 Deploy in minutes 24/7 screening Active Call 02:34 ![Joy AI Recruiter](/_next/image?url=%2Fimages%2F_avatars%2Fjoy.png&w=256&q=75) ### Joy AI Recruiter #### Recent Interviews AI-screened candidates ![Marcus](/_next/image?url=%2Fimages%2F_avatars%2Fconstruction_glasses_lady.png&w=64&q=75) Marcus CNA Outreach ![Sarah](/_next/image?url=%2Fimages%2F_avatars%2Fsupport_lady.png&w=64&q=75) Sarah RN Interviewed ![David](/_next/image?url=%2Fimages%2F_avatars%2Fmanufacturing_guy.png&w=64&q=75) David Caregiver Offer 15 candidates screened today Updated October 6, 2026 ## What is healthcare staffing software for Chicago employers? Healthcare staffing software for Chicago is a tool hospitals, home care agencies and skilled nursing operators in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro use to interview CNA, caregiver, medical assistant and nurse applicants by phone the moment they apply. Classet's AI interviewer, Joy, calls or web-calls the applicant and asks about Illinois CNA certification, Health Care Worker Registry status, shift availability, transfer experience and how the applicant gets to work. Your recruiter then receives a structured summary, the transcript and the recording, and a recruiter or director of nursing decides who comes in. The labor pool is large and contested. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the metro employed 45,850 nursing assistants at a median of $46,940 a year in May 2025, plus 108,520 home health and personal care aides at $38,180. On Classet's platform, 55% of applicants apply outside business hours, when a Loop or suburban HR office is closed. ## Results Chicago healthcare employers can expect $46,940 median annual wage, nursing assistants, Chicago metro, May 2025 [U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025: Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI (MSA 16980), nursing assistants (31-1131), home health and personal care aides (31-1120), LPNs (29-2061), medical assistants (31-9092), registered nurses (29-1141)](https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_16980.htm) 55% of applicants apply outside business hours Classet: Classet platform data, completed interviews across customer accounts 88% of applicants who start the phone screen finish it within 20 minutes of applying Classet: Classet platform data, completed interviews across customer accounts 88% of 10,167 candidates rated the interview positively on a 4-point scale [Classet: Classet post-interview candidate ratings, 10,167 responses on a 4-point scale, January to August 2026](https://www.classet.ai/land/candidate-experience) For a Chicago home care agency competing with Northwestern Medicine and Rush for CNAs paid a $46,940 median, the numbers read like this: more than half of applications arrive after the office closes, and 88% of applicants who start Joy's screen finish within 20 minutes of applying while most of them rate the call positively. A scheduler at a Cook County agency logs in at 8am to completed interviews from the night before, each with Illinois certification and registry answers already captured, and calls back the caregivers who meet the must-haves before a hospital recruiter does. ## Trusted by healthcare staffing teams [![MAU](/_next/image?url=%2Fcustomer-logos%2Fmau-blue.webp&w=256&q=100)](/case-studies)[![Cross Country Healthcare](/_next/image?url=%2Fcustomer-logos%2Fcross-country.png&w=256&q=100)](/case-studies)[![Tailored Management](/_next/image?url=%2Fcustomer-logos%2Ftailored-management.png&w=256&q=100)](/case-studies) ## How many CNAs and caregivers work in Chicago, and what do they earn? The Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro, which reaches from Cook County into northwest Indiana and southeast Wisconsin, employed 108,520 home health and personal care aides and 45,850 nursing assistants in May 2025, according to BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. Median pay was $38,180 a year for aides and $46,940 for nursing assistants, or about $18.36 and $22.57 an hour. Both sit above the national medians of $17.21 and $20.13 an hour that BLS reports for the same jobs. Licensed staff are fewer and cost more. The metro counted 100,240 registered nurses at a median of $100,490, along with 11,420 LPNs at $78,070 and 15,640 medical assistants at $47,270. For a home care agency, the gap between the two entry roles is the retention problem in one number: a certified nursing assistant in Chicago earns a median $8,760 a year more than a home health aide, so agencies train caregivers who later leave for nursing home and hospital CNA jobs. ## Which Chicago employers compete for CNAs, caregivers and nurses? Northwestern Medicine is a health system with 11 hospitals across Chicagoland and Northern Illinois, from Northwestern Memorial Hospital downtown to Lake Forest, Huntley, Palos Heights and Woodstock, and lists hundreds of outpatient locations. Rush University System for Health operates Rush University Medical Center on the Near West Side, with community hospitals at Rush Copley Medical Center and Rush Oak Park Hospital. Both systems hire nursing assistants, patient care technicians and RNs from the same applicant pool as long-term care and home care. On the home care side, Help at Home keeps its headquarters at 33 S. State St. in the Loop. According to the company's 2026 careers page, Help at Home employs 49,000 caregivers serving 66,000 clients a month in 12 states. Skilled nursing and assisted living operators across Cook County post CNA openings on the same Indeed searches. A caregiver applicant in Pilsen or Cicero sees all of those postings at once, so the employer whose interview reaches the applicant first gets the first real conversation. ## Where do Chicago CNAs get certified? The Basic Nursing Assistant program at Malcolm X College is the City Colleges of Chicago route to CNA certification, taught at its main campus at 1900 W. Jackson and at the West Side Learning Center on W. Madison St. Students attend theory classes Monday through Thursday in a day session (9am to 2:30pm) or an evening session (4pm to 9:30pm), complete at least 40 clinical hours at an outside site, and must pass the Illinois competency exam before the Illinois Department of Public Health lists them on the Health Care Worker Registry. For 2026 the college schedules 5 cohorts a year: 2 in spring, 2 in fall and 1 in summer. For a Chicago employer, the cohort calendar becomes the hiring calendar. Newly certified CNAs apply in the weeks after a cohort finishes, often at night after clinicals or a second job. Joy interviews those applicants the moment they apply, so a recruiter opens Monday with completed summaries from the weekend instead of a list of voicemails to return. ## What does Joy do on a Chicago CNA application? Joy is the AI interviewer described on the [healthcare hiring page](/use-cases/healthcare), set up here for Illinois roles; 55% of the applications Joy handles arrive outside business hours. 1. A CNA applies on Indeed, on your careers page or through a Classet interview link, often late at night after a clinical shift, and Joy phones the applicant or texts a web-call link the moment they apply. 2. Joy introduces itself as an AI interviewer and asks your questions, for example Illinois CNA certification and registry status, CPR or BLS, shift and weekend availability, dementia experience, a car or CTA route to the facility, and a start date. 3. Joy answers pay and benefits questions from the FAQ you wrote. 4. The summary lands in Hiring Hub or your ATS with each Illinois must-have marked meets or does not meet, and the transcript and recording sit under it. A recruiter decides who moves forward. Candidates who clear your must-haves can get a text with your open times and book on their phone through [Scheduling](/scheduling), available by request. Joy records what the applicant says and leaves the judgment to your recruiter, and a Chicago applicant who wants a human can opt out and reach your team. ## Roles Joy screens in Chicago healthcare CNAs and nursing assistants answer for Illinois certification, Health Care Worker Registry status, long-term care or acute experience and weekend availability; the metro employs 45,850 of them at a $46,940 median. Home health and personal care aides, 108,520 in the metro at a $38,180 median, cover HHA or CNA status, dementia and hospice clients, a car or transit route, and how far the aide will travel between clients in the city and the suburbs. Medical assistants, 15,640 in the metro at $47,270, answer for CMA or RMA certification, phlebotomy and EKG experience and the EHR used, for example Epic. LPNs and RNs give license number and state, specialty and unit experience, BLS or ACLS status and float willingness, and your credentialing team verifies the Illinois license with the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation as it does today. Patient care technicians add phlebotomy and telemetry experience. You set each Chicago role up as its own interview with its own knockouts, so a medical assistant never hears the registry question written for a CNA. See Joy interview a healthcare applicant Your first 20 completed interviews are free. Card required at signup, nothing charged until the trial ends. [Book a demo](/demo?ref=use-case-healthcare-chicago-mid)[Get Started Free](https://app.classet.ai/signup/) ## Joy vs. manual phone screens vs. a general ATS How the first step of healthcare hiring compares across the three ways teams usually run it. Joy (Classet) Manual phone screens General ATS When the first interview happens The moment they apply, 24/7 When a recruiter gets to the list, during business hours Not at all: the application waits in a queue until someone reviews it Applicants who apply after hours (55% across Classet accounts) Interviewed the same night Called back the next business day, often later Seen whenever someone next logs in What your team receives Structured summary, transcript, recording and knockout results The recruiter's notes, if they took any A resume and the application answers Recruiter time per applicant Reading a summary; playing the recording when needed Dialing, voicemail, phone tag and the call itself Reading resumes, then a phone screen anyway Who decides who gets hired Your team Your team Your team Cost Standalone from $249/month (annual), ATS-integrated from $1,995/month Recruiter hours ATS subscription, plus recruiter hours to screen ## Frequently asked questions ### How fast can a Chicago home care agency hire caregivers with AI interviews? The answer is a first conversation at the moment the caregiver applies, which removes the wait for a recruiter callback. Joy calls or texts the applicant, confirms HHA or CNA status, Illinois registry status, a car or CTA route and the shifts the caregiver can cover, and posts the summary to Hiring Hub or your ATS the same hour. On Classet's platform, 55% of applicants apply outside business hours and 88% of applicants who start the screen finish within 20 minutes of applying. A Chicago agency hiring from a pool of 108,520 home health and personal care aides then spends recruiter time on caregivers who already meet the must-haves. For a national comparison, Chronic Care Staffing cut time-to-hire from 6 to 8 weeks to 2 to 3 after moving the first screen to Joy. A person on your team still makes the offer. ### What do CNAs and caregivers earn in Chicago compared with the national median? Chicago pays above the national median for both entry roles. In May 2025, BLS reported a median of $46,940 a year for the metro's 45,850 nursing assistants, about $22.57 an hour, against a national median of $20.13 an hour. Home health and personal care aides in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro earned a median $38,180, about $18.36 an hour, against $17.21 nationally. Registered nurses earned a median $100,490 across 100,240 jobs. Put the Chicago pay range in the job's FAQ and Joy quotes it to any CNA or caregiver who asks about pay during the interview. An applicant who hears a clear number on the first call is easier to schedule for an in-person interview at a Chicago facility than one who has to wait for a callback to learn the rate. ### Does Joy check the Illinois Health Care Worker Registry? No. The Illinois Health Care Worker Registry is the list the Illinois Department of Public Health keeps of nursing assistants who passed the competency exam, and Joy does not query the registry. Joy asks the applicant about Illinois CNA certification, registry status, the training program completed and any certification from another state, and records each answer in the summary and transcript, and your team verifies registry status before hire, the same check you run today. You decide which answers are knockouts, for example an active Illinois CNA listing for a skilled nursing role or an HHA certificate for a home care role, and Joy marks each applicant as meeting or not meeting the requirement at the top of the summary. A new Malcolm X College graduate who passed the exam but is waiting for the registry listing can say so on the call, and your recruiter sees the answer before scheduling. ### Can Joy interview Chicago healthcare applicants in Spanish? Yes. Spanish is one of the 25 or more languages Joy interviews in, and a Chicago agency can turn it on for caregiver and CNA openings. A caregiver who chooses Spanish when the call opens hears the identical questions and knockouts in Spanish, while your office reads the summary in the language its recruiters work in, with the transcript and recording attached. A caregiver in Little Village or Cicero can explain dementia care experience and a travel radius in Spanish instead of guessing at an English web form, and the scheduler compares the answer fields side by side with English-language applicants. At any point in the call the applicant can ask for a person instead, and Joy routes the request to your Chicago team. For a compliance review, Classet points to a monthly bias audit by Warden AI, an outside firm, and an interview aligned with NYC Local Law 144. ### Does Joy work with the ATS our Chicago team already uses? Yes. ATS Sync links Joy to 95 applicant tracking systems, and the list includes Workday, iCIMS, UKG, Bullhorn and ADP Workforce Now. When a CNA applicant appears in the ATS, Joy starts the interview, then writes the summary, knockout results, transcript and recording back to that candidate's record, where your Chicago recruiters already work. A Chicago home care agency without an ATS uses Hiring Hub, Classet's built-in applicant tracking, which includes a direct Indeed connection, applicant import and a Kanban pipeline and can start the same day. ATS-integrated deployments start at $1,995 a month and are scoped in a discovery call. Joy asks about employment only and never touches patient information; recordings and transcripts sit in Classet, which holds SOC 2 Type II certification, and in your connected ATS. ### What does AI phone screening cost for a Chicago healthcare employer? Standalone pricing is $249 a month billed annually, or $349 month-to-month, with 50 completed interviews included, and you bring candidates through Indeed, your careers page or an interview link. Scale is $999 a month billed annually, or $1,399 month-to-month, with 250 completed interviews. ATS-integrated deployments start at $1,995 a month and are scoped in a discovery call based on hiring volume and the systems involved. A Chicago caregiver who never picks up does not count against the plan, because only completed interviews use the monthly allowance. A single Chicago clinic hiring a few medical assistants a year fits inside the standalone plan. A home care agency refilling caregiver caseloads across Cook County, or a staffing firm placing CNAs in suburban nursing homes every week, usually needs Scale or an ATS-integrated plan. ## Sources 1. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: [Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025: Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI (MSA 16980), nursing assistants (31-1131), home health and personal care aides (31-1120), LPNs (29-2061), medical assistants (31-9092), registered nurses (29-1141)](https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_16980.htm) (accessed 2026-10-06) 2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: [Occupational Outlook Handbook: Nursing Assistants and Orderlies (national May 2025 median wage)](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/nursing-assistants.htm) (accessed 2026-10-06) 3. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: [Occupational Outlook Handbook: Home Health and Personal Care Aides (national May 2025 median wage)](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/home-health-aides-and-personal-care-aides.htm) (accessed 2026-10-06) 4. Northwestern Medicine: [Northwestern Medicine: About us (11 hospitals across Chicagoland and Northern Illinois)](https://www.nm.org/about-us) (accessed 2026-10-06) 5. Rush University System for Health: [Rush University System for Health: About us](https://www.rush.edu/about-us) (accessed 2026-10-06) 6. Help at Home: [Help at Home careers: 49,000 caregivers, 66,000 clients a month, 12 states, Chicago headquarters](https://www.helpathome.com/careers/) (accessed 2026-10-06) 7. City Colleges of Chicago: [Malcolm X College Basic Nursing Assistant (BNA) program, City Colleges of Chicago](https://www.ccc.edu/malcolm-x/departments/nursing-assistant-basic/) (accessed 2026-10-06) 8. Classet: [Case study: How Chronic Care Staffing cut time-to-hire from 8 weeks to 3 with AI screening](https://www.classet.ai/blog/case-study-chronic-care-staffing) (accessed 2026-10-06) 9. Classet: Classet platform data, completed interviews across customer accounts (accessed 2026-10-06) 10. Classet: [Classet post-interview candidate ratings, 10,167 responses on a 4-point scale, January to August 2026](https://www.classet.ai/land/candidate-experience) (accessed 2026-10-06) 11. Classet: [Classet pricing](https://www.classet.ai/pricing) (accessed 2026-10-06) 12. Classet: [ATS Sync integrations directory](https://www.classet.ai/integrations) (accessed 2026-10-06) ## Healthcare Recruiting in Other Cities Part of [Healthcare Recruiting](/use-cases/healthcare) [Phoenix, Arizona](/use-cases/healthcare/phoenix) Your best healthcare candidates are applying right now. Joy can interview them the moment they do. [Book a demo](/demo?ref=use-case-healthcare-chicago-bottom)[Get Started Free](https://app.classet.ai/signup/)