---
title: "Insurance Appraiser, Auto Damage"
description: "Appraise automobile or other vehicle damage to determine repair costs for insurance claim settlement. Prepare insurance forms to indicate repair cost or…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/insurance-appraiser-auto-damage"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Insurance Appraiser, Auto Damage

**Category:** Business and Financial Operations · **SOC code:** 13-1032 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 13-1032.00

Appraise automobile or other vehicle damage to determine repair costs for insurance claim settlement. Prepare insurance forms to indicate repair cost or cost estimates and recommendations. May seek agreement with automotive repair shop on repair costs.

Also advertised as: Appraiser; Automobile Appraiser (Auto Appraiser); Automobile Damage Appraiser (Auto Damage Appraiser); Damage Appraiser; Field Appraiser; Field Inspector; Insurance Appraiser; Material Damage Appraiser.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $78,240 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $37.61/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $58,360 to $101,590, with the middle half between $65,050 and $91,880
- **Total US employment:** 11,560
- **Typical entry education:** Certificate
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -8.7% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 700 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 38/100 — 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 11,560 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $58,360 |
| 25th | $65,050 |
| 50th (median) | $78,240 |
| 75th | $91,880 |
| 90th | $101,590 |
| Mean (average) | $78,900 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| KY | $97,950 | $108,641 | Not published by BLS |
| PA | $95,720 | $98,102 | 310 |
| NJ | $94,280 | $86,650 | Not published by BLS |
| CT | $89,740 | $86,613 | 210 |
| SC | $86,680 | $92,460 | 220 |
| AZ | $86,030 | $85,451 | 40 |
| OR | $83,270 | $80,562 | 170 |
| MD | $82,870 | $78,955 | Not published by BLS |
| UT | $82,570 | $83,519 | 50 |
| OK | $82,340 | $93,735 | Not published by BLS |
| GA | $81,470 | $84,606 | Not published by BLS |
| VA | $81,470 | $80,580 | Not published by BLS |
| NY | $81,150 | $75,194 | 360 |
| MA | $79,930 | $75,579 | 680 |
| ME | $79,510 | $81,927 | 50 |

24 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 39 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/insurance-appraiser-auto-damage/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/insurance-appraiser-auto-damage.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 13,500 in the 2025–2035 base year to 12,400 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 1,200 jobs, or -8.7%. Declining: -8.7% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 700 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:** Postsecondary nondegree award (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

### 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 |
| --- | --- |
| Some College Courses | 30.6% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 28.8% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 23.9% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 15.2% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 1.5% |

## What the work involves

- Review repair cost estimates with automobile repair shop to secure agreement on cost of repairs.
- Examine damaged vehicle to determine extent of structural, body, mechanical, electrical, or interior damage.
- Estimate parts and labor to repair damage, using standard automotive labor and parts cost manuals and knowledge of automotive repair.
- Evaluate practicality of repair as opposed to payment of market value of vehicle before accident.
- Prepare insurance forms to indicate repair cost estimates and recommendations.
- Determine salvage value on total-loss vehicle.
- Arrange to have damage appraised by another appraiser to resolve disagreement with shop on repair cost.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Writing — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — 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.

- Time Management — 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
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.5 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 Conventional (C), Realistic (R), Enterprising (E).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 5.44 |
| R — Realistic | 5.17 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.54 |
| I — Investigative | 3.04 |
| S — Social | 1.64 |
| A — Artistic | 1.16 |

### 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 | 94.1 |
| ESTJ | 86.4 |
| ISFJ | 76.2 |
| ISTP | 69.5 |
| INTJ | 65.4 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Transportation Vehicle, Equipment and Systems Inspector, Except Aviation](https://nuecareer.com/careers/transportation-vehicle-equipment-and-systems-inspector) — median $92,100
- [Automotive Body and Related Repairer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/automotive-body-and-related-repairer) — median $54,890
- [Automotive Service Technician and Mechanic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/automotive-service-technician-and-mechanic) — median $50,620
- [Appraiser of Personal and Business Property](https://nuecareer.com/careers/appraiser-of-personal-and-business-property) — median $67,960
- [Automotive Engineering Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/automotive-engineering-technician) — median $74,510
- [Cost Estimator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cost-estimator) — median $78,740
- [Appraiser and Assessor of Real Estate](https://nuecareer.com/careers/appraiser-and-assessor-of-real-estate) — median $67,960
- [Insurance Claim and Policy Processing Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/insurance-claim-and-policy-processing-clerk) — median $49,230
- [Claims Adjuster, Examiner, and Investigator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/claims-adjuster-examiner-and-investigator) — median $78,000
- [Credit Authorizer, Checker, and Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/credit-authorizer-checker-and-clerk) — median $50,080

## 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/insurance-appraiser-auto-damage