---
title: "Surgical Technologist"
description: "Assist in operations, under the supervision of surgeons, registered nurses, or other surgical personnel. May help set up operating room, prepare and…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/surgical-technologist"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Surgical Technologist

**Category:** Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · **SOC code:** 29-2055 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 29-2055.00

Assist in operations, under the supervision of surgeons, registered nurses, or other surgical personnel. May help set up operating room, prepare and transport patients for surgery, adjust lights and equipment, pass instruments and other supplies to surgeons and surgeons' assistants, hold retractors, cut sutures, and help count sponges, needles, supplies, and instruments.

Also advertised as: Central Supply Technician (Central Supply Tech); Certified Scrub Technician (Certified Scrub Tech); CST (Certified Surgical Technologist); OR Surgical Tech (Operating Room Surgical Technician); OR Tech (Operating Room Technician); OR Technologist (Operating Room Technologist); Scrub Technician (Scrub Tech); Scrub Technologist (Scrub Tech).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $64,650 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $31.08/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $45,940 to $96,940, with the middle half between $54,690 and $79,750
- **Total US employment:** 117,460
- **Typical entry education:** Certificate
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +5.0% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 7,100 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 65/100 — 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 117,460 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $45,940 |
| 25th | $54,690 |
| 50th (median) | $64,650 |
| 75th | $79,750 |
| 90th | $96,940 |
| Mean (average) | $68,710 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| HI | $82,640 | $75,161 | 290 |
| OR | $81,390 | $78,743 | 1,090 |
| CA | $81,310 | $73,438 | 11,920 |
| MA | $80,870 | $76,468 | 2,220 |
| AK | $80,380 | $78,528 | 310 |
| MN | $80,210 | $81,332 | 1,770 |
| CT | $79,890 | $77,106 | 1,220 |
| NY | $79,550 | $73,711 | 6,540 |
| DC | $77,520 | $70,536 | 340 |
| WA | $77,270 | $72,206 | 2,510 |
| NJ | $77,200 | $70,953 | 2,780 |
| CO | $75,740 | $73,497 | 2,100 |
| NV | $75,480 | $75,496 | 1,110 |
| NH | $75,040 | $72,040 | 370 |
| RI | $74,130 | $72,478 | 240 |

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

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 118,400 in the 2025–2035 base year to 124,300 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 5,900 jobs, or +5.0%. Faster than average: 5.0% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 7,100 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.

## What the work involves

- Maintain a proper sterile field during surgical procedures.
- Hand instruments and supplies to surgeons and surgeons' assistants, hold retractors and cut sutures, and perform other tasks as directed by surgeon during operation.
- Prepare patients for surgery, including positioning patients on the operating table and covering them with sterile surgical drapes to prevent exposure.
- Clean and restock operating room, gathering and placing equipment and supplies and arranging instruments according to instructions, such as a preference card.
- Count sponges, needles, and instruments before and after operation.
- Prepare dressings or bandages and apply or assist with their application following surgery.
- Monitor and continually assess operating room conditions, including patient and surgical team needs.
- Scrub arms and hands and assist the surgical team to scrub and put on gloves, masks, and surgical clothing.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Monitoring — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.9 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.

- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Medicine and Dentistry — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 2.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 2.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.3 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 Realistic (R), Conventional (C), Social (S).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 6.26 |
| C — Conventional | 4.85 |
| S — Social | 3.82 |
| I — Investigative | 3.22 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.61 |
| 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) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 84.6 |
| ISFJ | 81.9 |
| ESTJ | 71.9 |
| ISTP | 68.6 |
| ESFJ | 61.4 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ, ISFJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Surgical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/surgical-assistant) — median $66,800
- [Cardiovascular Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cardiovascular-technologist-and-technician) — median $74,310
- [Endoscopy Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/endoscopy-technician) — median $48,430
- [Medical Equipment Preparer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-equipment-preparer) — median $47,700
- [Radiologic Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/radiologic-technologist-and-technician) — median $80,110
- [Diagnostic Medical Sonographer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/diagnostic-medical-sonographer) — median $96,590
- [Ophthalmic Medical Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/ophthalmic-medical-technician) — median $45,570
- [Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-and-clinical-laboratory-technician) — median $62,930
- [Radiation Therapist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/radiation-therapist) — median $105,310
- [Histotechnologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/histotechnologist) — median $62,930

## 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/surgical-technologist