---
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: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# 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: Certified Surgical Technician; Certified Surgical Technologist (CST); Operating Room Surgical Technician (OR St); Operating Room Technician (OR Tech); Operating Room Technologist (OR Tech); Surgical Scrub Technician; Surgical Scrub Technologist (Surgical Scrub Tech); Surgical Technician.

## 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:** +4.5% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 7,000 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 60/100 — 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 115,600 in the 2024–2034 base year to 120,800 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 5,200 jobs, or +4.5%. Faster than average: 4.5% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 7,000 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:** 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 |
| --- | --- |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 40.6% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 31.2% |
| Some College Courses | 23.2% |
| High School Diploma | 5.0% |

## What the work involves

- Prepare patients for surgery, including positioning patients on the operating table and covering them with sterile surgical drapes to prevent exposure.
- Operate, assemble, adjust, or monitor sterilizers, lights, suction machines, or diagnostic equipment to ensure proper operation.
- Prepare, care for, and dispose of tissue specimens taken for laboratory analysis.
- Provide technical assistance to surgeons, surgical nurses, or anesthesiologists.
- 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.
- Scrub arms and hands and assist the surgical team to scrub and put on gloves, masks, and surgical clothing.
- Clean and restock operating room, gathering and placing equipment and supplies and arranging instruments according to instructions, such as a preference card.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Monitoring — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — 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
- Coordination — 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
- Instructing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — 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

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Medicine and Dentistry — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — 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
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Selective Attention — importance 3.4 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 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/surgical-technologist