---
title: "Ambulance Driver and Attendant, Except Emergency Medical Technicians"
description: "Drive ambulance or assist ambulance driver in transporting sick, injured, or convalescent persons. Assist in lifting patients."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/ambulance-driver-and-attendant"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Ambulance Driver and Attendant, Except Emergency Medical Technicians

**Category:** Transportation and Material Moving · **SOC code:** 53-3011 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 53-3011.00

Drive ambulance or assist ambulance driver in transporting sick, injured, or convalescent persons. Assist in lifting patients.

Also advertised as: Ambulance Driver; Chair Car Driver; CPR Ambulance Driver (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation Ambulance Driver); Driver; Driver Medic; ECA (Emergency Care Attendant); Emergency Vehicle Operator; EMS Driver (Emergency Medical Services Driver).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $35,450 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $17.04/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $27,350 to $45,960, with the middle half between $30,750 and $38,410
- **Total US employment:** 12,630
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -1.3% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 1,400 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 65/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 12,630 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $27,350 |
| 25th | $30,750 |
| 50th (median) | $35,450 |
| 75th | $38,410 |
| 90th | $45,960 |
| Mean (average) | $36,210 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CT | $73,730 | $71,161 | 280 |
| OR | $40,900 | $39,570 | 40 |
| MA | $39,480 | $37,331 | Not published by BLS |
| MD | $38,410 | $36,595 | 300 |
| ND | $37,690 | $42,368 | 120 |
| UT | $37,660 | $38,093 | 50 |
| WI | $37,450 | $39,800 | 230 |
| NY | $37,230 | $34,497 | 610 |
| VA | $36,980 | $36,576 | 370 |
| IL | $36,730 | $36,745 | 610 |
| NV | $36,440 | $36,448 | 60 |
| NJ | $36,170 | $33,243 | 170 |
| CA | $36,150 | $32,650 | 1,420 |
| IA | $36,090 | $41,123 | 370 |
| MT | $36,050 | $38,090 | 180 |

27 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 42 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/ambulance-driver-and-attendant/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/ambulance-driver-and-attendant.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 14,300 in the 2025–2035 base year to 14,100 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 200 jobs, or -1.3%. Declining: -1.3% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 1,400 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

## What the work involves

- Place patients on stretchers, and load stretchers into ambulances, usually with assistance from other attendants.
- Remove and replace soiled linens or equipment to maintain sanitary conditions.
- Earn and maintain appropriate certifications.
- Clean and wash rigs, ambulances, or equipment.
- Drive ambulances or assist ambulance drivers in transporting sick, injured, or convalescent persons.
- Report facts concerning accidents or emergencies to hospital personnel or law enforcement officials.
- Administer first aid, such as bandaging, splinting, or administering oxygen.
- Replace supplies and disposable items on ambulances.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Service Orientation — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- English Language — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Transportation — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Medicine and Dentistry — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Multilimb Coordination — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Social (S), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 6.45 |
| S — Social | 4.73 |
| C — Conventional | 3.57 |
| I — Investigative | 2.45 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.53 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISFJ | 76.8 |
| ISTJ | 71.6 |
| ISFP | 65.1 |
| ESTJ | 64.1 |
| ISTP | 62.5 |

Best-fitting types: ISFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Emergency Medical Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/emergency-medical-technician) — median $44,470
- [Paramedic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/paramedic) — median $60,600
- [Orderly](https://nuecareer.com/careers/orderly) — median $38,290
- [Nursing Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nursing-assistant) — median $42,260
- [Home Health Aide](https://nuecareer.com/careers/home-health-aide) — median $35,800
- [Surgical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/surgical-assistant) — median $66,800
- [Medical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-assistant) — median $45,690
- [Public Safety Telecommunicator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/public-safety-telecommunicator) — median $53,040
- [Lifeguard, Ski Patrol, and Other Recreational Protective Service Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/lifeguard-ski-patrol-and-other-recreational-protective-service-worker) — median $33,580
- [Personal Care Aide](https://nuecareer.com/careers/personal-care-aide) — median $35,800

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/ambulance-driver-and-attendant