---
title: "Passenger Attendant"
description: "Provide services to ensure the safety of passengers aboard ships, buses, trains, or within the station or terminal. Perform duties such as explaining the…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/passenger-attendant"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Passenger Attendant

**Category:** Transportation and Material Moving · **SOC code:** 53-6061 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 53-6061.00

Provide services to ensure the safety of passengers aboard ships, buses, trains, or within the station or terminal. Perform duties such as explaining the use of safety equipment, serving meals or beverages, or answering questions related to travel.

Also advertised as: Attendant; Bus Aide; Bus Assistant; Bus Attendant; Bus Monitor; Cabin Attendant; Fare Enforcement Officer; Transportation Aide.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $37,720 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $18.14/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $27,970 to $46,590, with the middle half between $31,240 and $41,680
- **Total US employment:** 27,110
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +6.0% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 4,300 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 64/100 — 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 27,110 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $27,970 |
| 25th | $31,240 |
| 50th (median) | $37,720 |
| 75th | $41,680 |
| 90th | $46,590 |
| Mean (average) | $37,820 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| AK | $54,290 | $53,039 | 220 |
| DC | $52,730 | $47,980 | 710 |
| KY | $44,810 | $49,701 | Not published by BLS |
| MA | $43,350 | $40,990 | 1,330 |
| CA | $43,340 | $39,144 | 2,810 |
| HI | $42,360 | $38,526 | 610 |
| WA | $41,760 | $39,023 | 900 |
| NY | $41,590 | $38,537 | 3,190 |
| MI | $40,250 | $41,833 | 840 |
| OR | $39,910 | $38,612 | Not published by BLS |
| NJ | $39,760 | $36,542 | 640 |
| IL | $38,930 | $38,946 | 1,700 |
| VA | $38,810 | $38,386 | 70 |
| CO | $37,550 | $36,438 | 870 |
| AZ | $36,820 | $36,572 | 250 |

15 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 30 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/passenger-attendant/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/passenger-attendant.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 27,200 in the 2025–2035 base year to 28,900 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 1,600 jobs, or +6.0%. Faster than average: 6.0% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 4,300 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:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Short-term on-the-job training.

## What the work involves

- Perform equipment safety checks prior to departure.
- Respond to passengers' questions, requests, or complaints.
- Determine or facilitate seating arrangements.
- Explain and demonstrate safety procedures and safety equipment use.
- Greet passengers boarding transportation equipment and announce routes and stops.
- Open and close doors for passengers.
- Provide boarding assistance to elderly, sick, or injured people.
- Signal transportation operators to stop or to proceed.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.6 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.

- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — 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 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Transportation — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Personnel and Human Resources — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 2.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 3.0 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), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 4.45 |
| S — Social | 4.35 |
| R — Realistic | 3.76 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.08 |
| I — Investigative | 1.15 |
| 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) |
| --- | --- |
| ESFJ | 87.7 |
| ISFJ | 81.5 |
| ESTJ | 78.4 |
| ESFP | 65.7 |
| ISTJ | 63.3 |

Best-fitting types: ESFJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Flight Attendant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/flight-attendant) — median $63,580
- [Baggage Porter and Bellhop](https://nuecareer.com/careers/baggage-porter-and-bellhop) — median $37,080
- [Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agent and Travel Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/reservation-and-transportation-ticket-agent-and-travel-clerk) — median $44,390
- [Bus Driver, Transit and Intercity](https://nuecareer.com/careers/bus-driver-transit-and-intercity) — median $59,050
- [Shuttle Driver and Chauffeur](https://nuecareer.com/careers/shuttle-driver-and-chauffeur) — median $37,290
- [First-Line Supervisor of Passenger Attendants](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-passenger-attendants) — median $62,840
- [Parking Attendant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/parking-attendant) — median $35,150
- [Railroad Conductor and Yardmaster](https://nuecareer.com/careers/railroad-conductor-and-yardmaster) — median $78,000
- [Locker Room, Coatroom, and Dressing Room Attendant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/locker-room-coatroom-and-dressing-room-attendant) — median $36,300
- [Aircraft Cargo Handling Supervisor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/aircraft-cargo-handling-supervisor) — median $58,170

## 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/
- **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/passenger-attendant