---
title: "Social Science Research Assistant"
description: "Assist social scientists in laboratory, survey, and other social science research. May help prepare findings for publication and assist in laboratory…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/social-science-research-assistant"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Social Science Research Assistant

**Category:** Life, Physical, and Social Science · **SOC code:** 19-4061 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 19-4061.00

Assist social scientists in laboratory, survey, and other social science research. May help prepare findings for publication and assist in laboratory analysis, quality control, or data management.

Also advertised as: Clinical Research Assistant; Graduate Assistant; Graduate Research Assistant; Research Aide; Research Assistant; Research Associate; Research Technician; Social Research Assistant.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $61,990 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $29.81/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $38,090 to $102,070, with the middle half between $48,620 and $77,760
- **Total US employment:** 30,640
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +5.0% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 4,900 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 4/100 — 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 30,640 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $38,090 |
| 25th | $48,620 |
| 50th (median) | $61,990 |
| 75th | $77,760 |
| 90th | $102,070 |
| Mean (average) | $66,140 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| OK | $69,090 | $78,652 | 100 |
| DE | $68,230 | $68,361 | 40 |
| KS | $67,740 | $75,210 | 170 |
| GA | $66,620 | $69,185 | 1,840 |
| KY | $66,390 | $73,637 | 1,190 |
| MO | $65,940 | $72,608 | 750 |
| NH | $65,690 | $63,063 | 70 |
| MD | $65,550 | $62,453 | 700 |
| DC | $65,330 | $59,444 | 1,560 |
| IL | $64,890 | $64,917 | 250 |
| SC | $64,490 | $68,790 | 500 |
| NC | $63,710 | $67,542 | 2,930 |
| MA | $63,480 | $60,024 | Not published by BLS |
| NJ | $62,760 | $57,681 | 370 |
| ID | $62,570 | $65,522 | Not published by BLS |

30 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 45 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/social-science-research-assistant/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/social-science-research-assistant.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 38,400 in the 2025–2035 base year to 40,400 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 1,900 jobs, or +5.0%. Faster than average: 5.0% against 3.5% 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, 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 | 52.7% |
| Master's Degree | 36.7% |
| Some College Courses | 8.6% |
| Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 1.6% |
| Doctoral Degree | 0.4% |

## What the work involves

- Verify the accuracy and validity of data entered in databases, correcting any errors.
- Perform data entry and other clerical work as required for project completion.
- Provide assistance with the preparation of project-related reports, manuscripts, and presentations.
- Prepare tables, graphs, fact sheets, and written reports summarizing research results.
- Conduct internet-based and library research.
- Design and create special programs for tasks such as statistical analysis and data entry and cleaning.
- Develop and implement research quality control procedures.
- Prepare, manipulate, and manage extensive databases.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Science — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.1 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.

- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- English Language — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written 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 Expression — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — 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 Investigative (I), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 6.08 |
| C — Conventional | 5.93 |
| S — Social | 2.67 |
| R — Realistic | 2.38 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.27 |
| A — Artistic | 1.89 |

### 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 | 78.9 |
| INTJ | 75.9 |
| ISFJ | 66.2 |
| ESTJ | 63.5 |
| ISTP | 61.7 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ, INTJ. The bank also flags this occupation as introvert-friendly, meaning O\*NET work-context ratings put it low on public contact and performing for the public.

## Related occupations

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

- [Data Scientist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/data-scientist) — median $120,230
- [Clinical Data Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/clinical-data-manager) — median $120,230
- [Survey Researcher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/survey-researcher) — median $69,460
- [Clinical Research Coordinator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/clinical-research-coordinator) — median $167,220
- [Statistician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/statistician) — median $105,650
- [Statistical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/statistical-assistant) — median $50,330
- [Biostatistician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/biostatistician) — median $105,650
- [Teaching Assistant, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/teaching-assistant-postsecondary) — median $42,910
- [Health Informatics Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/health-informatics-specialist) — median $105,850
- [Bioinformatics Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/bioinformatics-technician) — median $81,490

## 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/social-science-research-assistant