---
title: "Medical Transcriptionist"
description: "Transcribe medical reports recorded by physicians and other healthcare practitioners using various electronic devices, covering office visits, emergency…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-transcriptionist"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Medical Transcriptionist

**Category:** Healthcare Support · **SOC code:** 31-9094 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 31-9094.00

Transcribe medical reports recorded by physicians and other healthcare practitioners using various electronic devices, covering office visits, emergency room visits, diagnostic imaging studies, operations, chart reviews, and final summaries. Transcribe dictated reports and translate abbreviations into fully understandable form. Edit as necessary and return reports in either printed or electronic form for review and signature, or correction.

Also advertised as: Clinical Medical Transcriptionist; Documentation Specialist; Medical Language Specialist; Medical Scribe; Medical Transcriber; Medical Transcriptionist; Pathology Transcriptionist; Radiology Transcriptionist.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $40,410 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $19.43/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $28,250 to $55,950, with the middle half between $34,150 and $48,000
- **Total US employment:** 41,550
- **Typical entry education:** Certificate
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -4.4% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 6,200 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 14/100 — 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 41,550 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $28,250 |
| 25th | $34,150 |
| 50th (median) | $40,410 |
| 75th | $48,000 |
| 90th | $55,950 |
| Mean (average) | $41,710 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MN | $50,030 | $50,730 | 270 |
| WI | $49,150 | $52,234 | 590 |
| ME | $48,600 | $50,077 | 80 |
| AK | $48,360 | $47,245 | 110 |
| CT | $48,190 | $46,511 | 390 |
| WY | $48,100 | $51,893 | 40 |
| OR | $46,280 | $44,775 | 510 |
| SD | $46,070 | $52,006 | 240 |
| NE | $45,880 | $50,920 | 230 |
| IL | $45,490 | $45,509 | 970 |
| DC | $45,110 | $41,046 | 70 |
| CA | $45,050 | $40,688 | 5,860 |
| IA | $45,010 | $51,286 | 180 |
| TN | $44,720 | $48,677 | 1,450 |
| ND | $44,660 | $50,203 | 120 |

36 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 51 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-transcriptionist/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/medical-transcriptionist.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 42,000 in the 2025–2035 base year to 40,200 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 1,900 jobs, or -4.4%. Declining: -4.4% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 6,200 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:** 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 |
| --- | --- |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 38.9% |
| Some College Courses | 33.7% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 16.7% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 10.7% |

## What the work involves

- Translate medical jargon and abbreviations into their expanded forms to ensure the accuracy of patient and health care facility records.
- Return dictated reports in printed or electronic form for physician's review, signature, and corrections and for inclusion in patients' medical records.
- Transcribe dictation for a variety of medical reports, such as patient histories, physical examinations, emergency room visits, operations, chart reviews, consultation, or discharge summaries.
- Identify mistakes in reports and check with doctors to obtain the correct information.
- Perform data entry and data retrieval services, providing data for inclusion in medical records and for transmission to physicians.
- Produce medical reports, correspondence, records, patient-care information, statistics, medical research, and administrative material.
- Perform a variety of clerical and office tasks, such as handling incoming and outgoing mail, completing and submitting insurance claims, typing, filing, or operating office machines.
- Review and edit transcribed reports or dictated material for spelling, grammar, clarity, consistency, and proper medical terminology.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — 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 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.1 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 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 1.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- English Language — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Medicine and Dentistry — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 2.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Telecommunications — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — 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

## 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), Social (S), Investigative (I).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 6.25 |
| S — Social | 3.69 |
| I — Investigative | 3.60 |
| R — Realistic | 2.47 |
| A — Artistic | 1.74 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.26 |

### 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 | 82.3 |
| ISTJ | 77.2 |
| ESTJ | 68.3 |
| ESFJ | 65.5 |
| INTJ | 57.6 |

Best-fitting types: ISFJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Medical Records Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-records-specialist) — median $51,140
- [Word Processor and Typist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/word-processor-and-typist) — median $49,280
- [Medical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-assistant) — median $45,690
- [Emergency Medical Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/emergency-medical-technician) — median $44,470
- [Medical Secretary and Administrative Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-secretary-and-administrative-assistant) — median $45,930
- [Health Information Technologist and Medical Registrar](https://nuecareer.com/careers/health-information-technologist-and-medical-registrar) — median $68,020
- [File Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/file-clerk) — median $43,600
- [Court Reporter and Simultaneous Captioner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/court-reporter-and-simultaneous-captioner) — median $72,420
- [Receptionist and Information Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/receptionist-and-information-clerk) — median $38,010
- [Pharmacy Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pharmacy-technician) — median $45,750

## 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/medical-transcriptionist