---
title: "Film and Video Editor"
description: "Edit moving images on film, video, or other media. May work with a producer or director to organize images for final production. May edit or synchronize…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/film-and-video-editor"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Film and Video Editor

**Category:** Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media · **SOC code:** 27-4032 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 27-4032.00

Edit moving images on film, video, or other media. May work with a producer or director to organize images for final production. May edit or synchronize soundtracks with images.

Also advertised as: Editor; Film Editor; News Editor; News Video Editor; News Videotape Editor; Non-Linear Editor; Online Editor; Tape Editor.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $75,420 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $36.26/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $40,280 to $148,550, with the middle half between $52,720 and $105,310
- **Total US employment:** 25,610
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +3.7% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 3,100 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 34/100 — 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 25,610 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $40,280 |
| 25th | $52,720 |
| 50th (median) | $75,420 |
| 75th | $105,310 |
| 90th | $148,550 |
| Mean (average) | $86,130 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NY | $103,440 | $95,848 | 3,710 |
| DC | $98,830 | $89,926 | 370 |
| MA | $92,130 | $87,115 | 550 |
| CA | $88,490 | $79,922 | 8,110 |
| CO | $84,620 | $82,114 | 380 |
| CT | $83,550 | $80,639 | 600 |
| NJ | $82,890 | $76,182 | 620 |
| VA | $78,740 | $77,880 | Not published by BLS |
| MD | $78,380 | $74,677 | 250 |
| UT | $76,240 | $77,116 | 370 |
| AL | $74,410 | $83,773 | 120 |
| IL | $72,460 | $72,490 | 310 |
| OR | $72,300 | $69,949 | 360 |
| LA | $66,870 | $75,810 | 80 |
| WA | $66,870 | $62,488 | 450 |

28 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 43 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/film-and-video-editor/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/film-and-video-editor.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 39,400 in the 2025–2035 base year to 40,800 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 1,500 jobs, or +3.7%. About as fast as average: 3.7% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 3,100 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:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### 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 |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 65.1% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 16.9% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 16.3% |
| Some College Courses | 1.2% |
| Master's Degree | 0.6% |

## What the work involves

- Review footage sequence by sequence to become familiar with it before assembling it into a final product.
- Review assembled films or edited videotapes on screens or monitors to determine if corrections are necessary.
- Organize and string together raw footage into a continuous whole according to scripts or the instructions of directors and producers.
- Set up and operate computer editing systems, electronic titling systems, video switching equipment, and digital video effects units to produce a final product.
- Verify key numbers and time codes on materials.
- Select and combine the most effective shots of each scene to form a logical and smoothly running story.
- Cut shot sequences to different angles at specific points in scenes, making each individual cut as fluid and seamless as possible.
- Study scripts to become familiar with production concepts and requirements.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.6 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.

- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Communications and Media — importance 4.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Telecommunications — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Fine Arts — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Fluency of Ideas — importance 3.6 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 Artistic (A), Conventional (C), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| A — Artistic | 5.61 |
| C — Conventional | 3.75 |
| R — Realistic | 3.14 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.08 |
| S — Social | 1.96 |
| I — Investigative | 1.91 |

### 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) |
| --- | --- |
| INFJ | 59.8 |
| INFP | 59.7 |
| INTP | 58.3 |
| INTJ | 57.0 |
| ENTP | 55.7 |

Best-fitting types: not scored.

## Related occupations

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

- [Editor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/editor) — median $77,920
- [Producer and Director](https://nuecareer.com/careers/producer-and-director) — median $90,360
- [Special Effects Artist and Animator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/special-effects-artist-and-animator) — median $102,030
- [Desktop Publisher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/desktop-publisher) — median $55,290
- [Media Technical Directors/Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/media-technical-directors-manager) — median $90,360
- [Audio and Video Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/audio-and-video-technician) — median $58,100
- [Graphic Designer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/graphic-designer) — median $62,960
- [Sound Engineering Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/sound-engineering-technician) — median $73,130
- [Camera Operator, Television, Video, and Film](https://nuecareer.com/careers/camera-operator-television-video-and-film) — median $74,990
- [Proofreader and Copy Marker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/proofreader-and-copy-marker) — median $51,120

## 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/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 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 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/film-and-video-editor