--- title: "Transportation Planner" description: "Prepare studies for proposed transportation projects. Gather, compile, and analyze data. Study the use and operation of transportation systems. Develop…" canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/transportation-planner" last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z" --- # Transportation Planner **Category:** Life, Physical, and Social Science · **SOC code:** 19-3099 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 19-3099.01 Prepare studies for proposed transportation projects. Gather, compile, and analyze data. Study the use and operation of transportation systems. Develop transportation models or simulations. Also advertised as: Planner; Program Officer; Transportation Analyst; Transportation Data Programs Manager; Transportation Planner. ## At a glance - **Median annual wage:** $101,110 (BLS OEWS, May 2025) - **Median hourly wage:** $48.61/hr - **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $66,120 to $160,300, with the middle half between $80,860 and $129,960 - **Total US employment:** 37,100 - **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's - **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed" - **Projected growth:** -0.2% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035) - **Annual job openings:** 2,700 openings a year - **AI-resilience score:** 27/100 — 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 37,100 US jobs. | Percentile | Annual wage | | --- | --- | | 10th | $66,120 | | 25th | $80,860 | | 50th (median) | $101,110 | | 75th | $129,960 | | 90th | $160,300 | | Mean (average) | $107,690 | ### 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | VA | $140,670 | $139,134 | 3,380 | | MD | $131,810 | $125,582 | 2,600 | | DC | $128,440 | $116,869 | 2,480 | | MA | $105,640 | $99,889 | 820 | | CO | $105,390 | $102,269 | 790 | | NY | $104,770 | $97,080 | 3,410 | | NE | $104,420 | $115,890 | 120 | | MN | $103,330 | $104,775 | 1,000 | | WA | $102,920 | $96,175 | 1,160 | | TX | $101,800 | $104,887 | 2,260 | | NJ | $101,260 | $93,066 | 350 | | AZ | $99,320 | $98,652 | 600 | | IL | $99,050 | $99,092 | 730 | | OH | $98,630 | $106,312 | 1,520 | | CA | $97,900 | $88,421 | 2,970 | 35 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 50 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/transportation-planner/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/transportation-planner. ## Outlook BLS projects employment to move from 41,500 in the 2025–2035 base year to 41,400 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 100 jobs, or -0.2%. Declining: -0.2% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 2,700 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 | 55.0% | | Master's Degree | 45.0% | ## What the work involves - Define regional or local transportation planning problems or priorities. - Prepare reports or recommendations on transportation planning. - Collaborate with engineers to research, analyze, or resolve complex transportation design issues. - Recommend transportation system improvements or projects, based on economic, population, land-use, or traffic projections. - Analyze information related to transportation, such as land use policies, environmental impact of projects, or long-range planning needs. - Interpret data from traffic modeling software, geographic information systems, or associated databases. - Design transportation surveys to identify areas of public concern. - Collaborate with other professionals to develop sustainable transportation strategies at the local, regional, or national level. ## Skills and knowledge ### Essential skills - Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Writing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Critical Thinking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Active Learning — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Mathematics — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Monitoring — 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 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Systems Evaluation — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Coordination — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Systems Analysis — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Operations Analysis — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Time Management — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Knowledge areas - Transportation — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - English Language — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Mathematics — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Geography — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Law and Government — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Computers and Electronics — importance 3.5 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 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Fluency of Ideas — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 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 Investigative (I), Conventional (C), Realistic (R). | Interest area | Score (1–7) | | --- | --- | | I — Investigative | 5.60 | | C — Conventional | 4.87 | | R — Realistic | 3.59 | | E — Enterprising | 3.14 | | A — Artistic | 2.01 | | S — Social | 1.76 | ### 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 | 87.1 | | INTJ | 84.0 | | ISTP | 74.2 | | ESTJ | 68.7 | | ENTJ | 62.2 | Best-fitting types: ISTJ, INTJ. ## Related occupations O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order. - [Transportation Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/transportation-engineer) — median $100,840 - [Urban and Regional Planner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/urban-and-regional-planner) — median $89,320 - [Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/transportation-storage-and-distribution-manager) — median $107,230 - [Logistics Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/logistics-engineer) — median $82,320 - [Logistician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/logistician) — median $82,320 - [Traffic Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/traffic-technician) — median $59,090 - [Logistics Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/logistics-analyst) — median $82,320 - [Civil Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/civil-engineer) — median $100,840 - [Project Management Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/project-management-specialist) — median $102,320 - [Civil Engineering Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/civil-engineering-technologist-and-technician) — median $64,950 ## 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/transportation-planner