---
title: "Paramedic"
description: "Administer basic or advanced emergency medical care and assess injuries and illnesses. May administer medication intravenously, use equipment such as…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/paramedic"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Paramedic

**Category:** Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · **SOC code:** 29-2043 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 29-2043.00

Administer basic or advanced emergency medical care and assess injuries and illnesses. May administer medication intravenously, use equipment such as EKGs, or administer advanced life support to sick or injured individuals.

Also advertised as: First Responder; Flight Paramedic; Paramedic.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $60,600 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $29.13/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $44,230 to $84,850, with the middle half between $49,660 and $73,470
- **Total US employment:** 100,610
- **Typical entry education:** Certificate
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +5.0% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 4,900 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** not scored for this occupation

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 100,610 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $44,230 |
| 25th | $49,660 |
| 50th (median) | $60,600 |
| 75th | $73,470 |
| 90th | $84,850 |
| Mean (average) | $63,360 |

### 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 | $104,310 | $97,474 | 2,110 |
| NJ | $86,630 | $79,620 | 540 |
| HI | $81,280 | $73,924 | 140 |
| DC | $78,550 | $71,473 | 90 |
| CT | $77,480 | $74,780 | 1,000 |
| MN | $76,300 | $77,367 | 1,690 |
| OR | $74,840 | $72,406 | 1,210 |
| CA | $74,590 | $67,368 | 5,190 |
| NY | $73,200 | $67,827 | 6,110 |
| AK | $71,860 | $70,204 | 310 |
| MD | $66,660 | $63,511 | 1,910 |
| MA | $66,340 | $62,729 | 1,860 |
| UT | $65,420 | $66,172 | 960 |
| DE | $64,240 | $64,364 | 340 |
| NH | $64,210 | $61,643 | 420 |

37 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 52 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/paramedic/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/paramedic.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 101,900 in the 2024–2034 base year to 107,000 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 5,100 jobs, or +5.0%. Faster than average: 5.0% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 4,900 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:** 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:** Less than 5 years.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

## What the work involves

- Administer drugs, orally or by injection, or perform intravenous procedures.
- Administer first aid treatment or life support care to sick or injured persons in prehospital settings.
- Assess nature and extent of illness or injury to establish and prioritize medical procedures.
- Attend training classes to maintain certification licensure, keep abreast of new developments in the field, or maintain existing knowledge.
- Comfort and reassure patients.
- Coordinate with treatment center personnel to obtain patients' vital statistics and medical history, to determine the circumstances of the emergency, and to administer emergency treatment.
- Coordinate work with other emergency medical team members or police or fire department personnel.
- Instruct emergency medical response team about emergency interventions to ensure correct application of procedures.

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

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| S — Social | 5.49 |
| R — Realistic | 5.20 |
| I — Investigative | 5.03 |
| C — Conventional | 3.42 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.91 |
| 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 | 70.8 |
| ISTJ | 68.5 |
| ISFP | 61.2 |
| ISTP | 60.7 |
| ESTJ | 58.6 |

Best-fitting types: ISFJ, ISTJ.

## 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
- [Registered Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/registered-nurse) — median $97,550
- [Acute Care Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/acute-care-nurse) — median $97,550
- [Licensed Practical Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/licensed-practical-nurse) — median $64,400
- [Critical Care Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/critical-care-nurse) — median $97,550
- [Surgical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/surgical-assistant) — median $66,800
- [Respiratory Therapist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/respiratory-therapist) — median $82,280
- [Nursing Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nursing-assistant) — median $42,260
- [Ambulance Driver and Attendant, Except Emergency Medical Technicians](https://nuecareer.com/careers/ambulance-driver-and-attendant) — median $35,450
- [Medical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-assistant) — median $45,690

### Paramedic compared with

- [Paramedic vs RN](https://nuecareer.com/careers/paramedic-vs-rn) — 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/paramedic