---
title: "Anesthesiologist"
description: "Administer anesthetics and analgesics for pain management prior to, during, or after surgery."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/anesthesiologist"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Anesthesiologist

**Category:** Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · **SOC code:** 29-1211 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 29-1211.00

Administer anesthetics and analgesics for pain management prior to, during, or after surgery.

Also advertised as: Medical Doctor (MD); Obstetrical Anesthesiologist; Staff Anesthesiologist; Staff Anesthetist.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $391,490 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $188.22/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $101,460 to $557,130, with the middle half between $207,000 and $490,530
- **Total US employment:** 38,760
- **Typical entry education:** Doctorate
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +3.2% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 1,300 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 45/100 — 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 38,760 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $101,460 |
| 25th | $207,000 |
| 50th (median) | $391,490 |
| 75th | $490,530 |
| 90th | $557,130 |
| Mean (average) | $360,570 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WA | $499,990 | $467,224 | 1,540 |
| MN | $496,510 | $503,453 | 870 |
| OH | $490,530 | $528,736 | 780 |
| VA | $488,310 | $482,978 | Not published by BLS |
| CT | $481,820 | $465,032 | Not published by BLS |
| NH | $481,640 | $462,382 | 330 |
| FL | $465,370 | $450,007 | 2,530 |
| PA | $461,390 | $472,871 | 410 |
| ID | $449,990 | $471,223 | Not published by BLS |
| NY | $445,660 | $412,950 | 7,230 |
| WI | $443,990 | $471,853 | 790 |
| KS | $437,030 | $485,222 | 600 |
| VT | $434,780 | $443,843 | 90 |
| MD | $418,010 | $398,260 | Not published by BLS |
| LA | $410,500 | $465,383 | 190 |

23 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 38 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/anesthesiologist/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/anesthesiologist.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 45,300 in the 2024–2034 base year to 46,700 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 1,400 jobs, or +3.2%. About as fast as average: 3.2% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 1,300 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Doctoral or professional degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Internship/residency.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Post-Doctoral Training | 69.2% |
| Doctoral Degree | 24.7% |
| First Professional Degree | 4.9% |
| Master's Degree | 1.3% |

## What the work involves

- Monitor patient before, during, and after anesthesia and counteract adverse reactions or complications.
- Record type and amount of anesthesia and patient condition throughout procedure.
- Provide and maintain life support and airway management and help prepare patients for emergency surgery.
- Administer anesthetic or sedation during medical procedures, using local, intravenous, spinal, or caudal methods.
- Position patient on operating table to maximize patient comfort and surgical accessibility.
- Decide when patients have recovered or stabilized enough to be sent to another room or ward or to be sent home following outpatient surgery.
- Confer with other medical professionals to determine type and method of anesthetic or sedation to render patient insensible to pain.
- Order laboratory tests, x-rays, and other diagnostic procedures.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Critical Thinking — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Science — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.6 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.

- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Medicine and Dentistry — importance 4.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Biology — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Chemistry — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Problem Sensitivity — importance 5.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.1 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 Investigative (I), Social (S), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 5.73 |
| S — Social | 5.25 |
| R — Realistic | 5.18 |
| C — Conventional | 3.69 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.50 |
| A — Artistic | 1.17 |

### 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) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 68.7 |
| ISTP | 65.1 |
| ISFJ | 64.7 |
| ISFP | 58.0 |
| ESTJ | 57.5 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ, ISTP, ISFJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Pediatric Surgeon](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pediatric-surgeon) — median $559,030
- [Orthopedic Surgeon, Except Pediatric](https://nuecareer.com/careers/orthopedic-surgeon) — median $358,550
- [Cardiologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cardiologist) — median $496,010
- [Nurse Anesthetist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nurse-anesthetist) — median $236,590
- [Anesthesiologist Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/anesthesiologist-assistant) — median $135,880
- [Emergency Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/emergency-medicine-physician) — median $335,550
- [General Internal Medicine Physician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/general-internal-medicine-physician) — median $256,560
- [Obstetrician and Gynecologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/obstetrician-and-gynecologist) — median $292,910
- [Nurse Practitioner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nurse-practitioner) — median $132,300
- [Physician Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/physician-assistant) — median $135,880

### Anesthesiologist compared with

- [CRNA vs Anesthesiologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/crna-vs-anesthesiologist) — side by side on BLS wage percentiles, projected growth, openings and entry requirements

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 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, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **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 30.3 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/anesthesiologist