Recruiting Millennials and Gen Z Into Funeral Careers: Modernizing the Image of Deathcare Work

On the surface, funeral service can look like an industry that never changes—quiet buildings, careful rituals, established roles. But if you work in deathcare, you know the truth: families have changed, expectations have changed, and the work itself is changing in ways that are both demanding and full of possibility. The recruiting challenge many funeral homes, cemeteries, and schools feel right now is not just about “finding people.” It’s about translating what this profession really is—its purpose, its craft, and its career pathways—into language that makes sense to younger generations who want both meaning and a sustainable life.

That’s where the conversation about funeral careers millennials and the next wave of deathcare careers becomes practical, not theoretical. Millennials and Gen Z aren’t necessarily less willing to do hard work. They are more likely to ask hard questions: What does a typical week look like? Will I have mentorship? Is there a path to growth? Is the culture healthy? If you can answer those questions with honesty and structure, recruiting becomes less like persuasion and more like alignment.

At the same time, the industry backdrop matters. Cremation is now the majority disposition choice, and that reshapes staffing needs, scheduling, and the skills that matter most. According to the National Funeral Directors Association, the U.S. cremation rate was projected at 63.4% for 2025, compared to a projected burial rate of 31.6%, with cremation projected to rise to 82.3% by 2045. That shift affects everything from facility design to family expectations for personalization and speed. The Cremation Association of North America similarly reports a 61.8% U.S. cremation rate for 2024, alongside projections that keep trending upward.

Recruiting younger professionals, then, is not about selling a static job. It’s about inviting them into a changing profession that needs their strengths—communication, tech comfort, cultural awareness, and a desire to build services that fit modern families.

Why this moment feels harder than it used to

If you feel like staffing is tighter than it was even a few years ago, you’re not imagining it. Industry leaders have been naming this as a real workforce issue, not a temporary inconvenience. The NFDA (via a FAMIC collaboration announcement) has described a profession-wide effort to address a workforce crisis, focusing on solutions for recruitment and retention. And when you look at the pipeline, the training hurdles are real: licensure requirements vary by state, apprenticeships can be difficult to coordinate, and the emotional intensity of the work is not something you can “shortcut” with a quick orientation.

At the national level, labor data also reinforces the need for a long view. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects about 5,800 openings for funeral service workers each year on average over the decade (with growth around 4% from 2024 to 2034), largely driven by replacement needs as workers retire or leave the labor force. The BLS also emphasizes what many directors know firsthand: on-call expectations and irregular hours are common in many roles, and that reality must be addressed directly if you want to attract and keep younger talent.

When you combine shifting consumer preferences, a complex credentialing pipeline, and a generation that expects transparency about workload and culture, you get a new recruiting landscape—one that rewards clarity and punishes vagueness.

What attracts Millennials and Gen Z to deathcare work

There’s a quiet misconception that younger generations avoid deathcare because it is “too heavy.” In reality, many younger people are drawn to the same reasons seasoned professionals stayed: purpose, community impact, and the chance to do work that matters on someone’s hardest day. What’s changed is how they evaluate whether the job is livable.

For many candidates, the hook is not the title “funeral director.” It’s the idea of being a steady guide—someone who can bring calm to chaos. This is why roles like funeral arranger or planning counselor are often a natural entry point. Funeral.com’s guide on how to become a funeral planner does something recruiters can learn from: it puts the day-to-day reality into human language—families walking in overwhelmed, needing someone to translate options into steps. That is exactly the kind of “real picture” that resonates with Millennials and Gen Z.

Younger candidates also respond to clear growth paths. They want to understand the ladder: where they start, what competencies are expected at each level, what mentorship looks like, and how long it typically takes to move from entry-level support to licensed work to leadership. If you can map a credible funeral director career path—even when the path varies by state—you reduce anxiety and increase commitment.

Finally, younger workers often want to modernize the experience for families. They notice gaps—pricing confusion, lack of personalization, outdated language, or a disconnect between what families want and what “has always been done.” If you frame your workplace as a place where thoughtful change is welcome, you’re not just filling a job; you’re recruiting a partner in improvement.

The barriers you need to name out loud

Recruiting fails when the unspoken parts of the job become a surprise. One of the simplest ways to improve recruiting funeral directors efforts is to get honest—without being discouraging. Younger candidates can handle intensity. What they struggle with is ambiguity.

In conversations with applicants, the barriers usually land in a few predictable places:

• Unclear scheduling expectations, especially around nights, weekends, and on-call rotations.
• Confusion about licensing, apprenticeship requirements, and what “entry-level” really means in your state.
• Fear of burnout, driven by emotional load and inconsistent boundaries.
• A dated image problem—candidates assuming the culture is rigid, hierarchical, or closed to new ideas.

These are not reasons to avoid recruiting. They are reasons to recruit differently. If your job postings skip over schedule realities, or your interviews avoid talking about hard calls and after-hours removals, candidates will fill the silence with worst-case assumptions. If you explain your systems—your rotation structure, your comp time approach, your mentorship model—you give them something they can actually say yes to.

Modernizing the image of the work without minimizing it

Modernizing deathcare does not mean making it “lighter” or pretending it’s always uplifting. It means describing it accurately, in modern language, with modern tools. Think about the way families encounter you now: Google searches, online reviews, price transparency expectations, and an increasing desire to personalize or simplify services. Recruiting should reflect that same reality.

One practical tactic is to use family-facing education as an employer brand asset. When your funeral home shares clear guidance—what a director does, what questions to ask, how pricing works—you demonstrate professionalism and empathy in a way that candidates can see. For example, Funeral.com’s article on working with a funeral director models exactly the tone younger professionals respect: warm, direct, and transparent about what families need. When candidates see deathcare communicated that way, the work feels less like a mystery and more like a skillset they can learn.

It also helps to acknowledge how the work is evolving with cremation. Fewer families are choosing a traditional burial every time, but that does not mean “less work.” It often means different work—faster timelines, more coordination with crematories, more creative memorialization, and more aftercare support. In recruiting, talk about the real skills modern deathcare requires: communication, logistics, problem-solving, event planning, tech fluency, and the emotional intelligence to hold space for grief.

A hiring strategy that fits younger talent

If you’re building a funeral home hiring strategy for 2026 and beyond, it helps to think in terms of pathways instead of one perfect hire. Many organizations lose candidates by insisting they arrive “fully formed.” Younger workers often want a runway—especially in a profession where so much learning happens in the presence of real families.

Start by widening the entry points. Not every strong candidate begins as a gen z funeral director hopeful. Some begin in admin, hospitality, or events. Some come from healthcare, social work, ministry, hospitality, or the military. Your job is to define what you can teach and what you need them to bring. You can teach your forms, your policies, your local customs. It’s harder to teach kindness under pressure, reliability on hard days, and the ability to communicate calmly with grieving people.

Then, build a training promise you can keep. If you say “mentorship,” define it: a named preceptor, scheduled check-ins, specific competencies, and a timeline. Candidates hear vague promises all the time. Specificity is credibility.

Third, translate the licensing journey into plain language. Even if state requirements vary, you can still help candidates understand the sequence: education, apprenticeship, exam, and supervised experience. If your market includes mortuary science students, consider referencing objective exam and pipeline information. The International Conference of Funeral Service Examining Boards publishes annual National Board Exam statistics; for 2024, it reports first-time pass rates of 78% (Arts) and 73% (Sciences), with lower pass rates among repeaters—useful context for why structured support and study time matter.

Finally, make flexibility real, not performative. Flexibility in deathcare does not always mean “no weekends.” It can mean predictable rotations, shared on-call coverage, comp time, cross-training to reduce single-point-of-failure stress, and technology that removes unnecessary friction. If you can reduce chaos, you make room for longevity.

Retention is recruiting you don’t have to redo

The phrase funeral industry staffing shortage gets used like a weather report—something you endure. But retention turns it into a problem you can actively shrink. Many Millennials and Gen Z hires will stay if they feel three things are true: they are learning, they are supported, and their life outside work is respected.

In practical terms, that means treating aftercare and mental health as part of operations, not an optional add-on. It means normalizing debriefing after difficult calls, creating coverage that allows time off without guilt, and addressing toxic dynamics quickly. Younger workers are less likely to tolerate “that’s just how it is” if “how it is” includes chronic understaffing, disrespect, or invisible labor.

It also means giving recognition that matches the work. Deathcare professionals often do invisible acts of care—fixing a small detail so a family doesn’t have to worry, staying late so a service feels right, listening to stories that need to be told. When leaders name those contributions, employees feel seen. Feeling seen is a retention strategy.

Partnerships that expand your pipeline

If you’re serious about attract young talent funeral industry goals, you’ll likely need partnerships that go beyond a single job posting. Schools, community colleges, career counselors, and community organizations are part of the long game. The NFDA’s updated high school career kit is one example of how the profession is trying to make outreach easier and more consistent—helpful if you want to speak at career fairs or introduce funeral service as a legitimate, skilled profession rather than a “fallback.”

Another overlooked partnership is with families and the public. When you publish clear, human education about how funeral service works, you normalize the idea that deathcare is a profession worth considering. Funeral.com’s Journal is built for that kind of public-facing clarity, and it can support your recruiting indirectly: candidates often discover the profession through the first funeral they attend, or the first article they read when they’re trying to help a friend. If the information they find is compassionate and modern, the profession feels approachable.

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