---
title: "Transportation Security Screener"
description: "Conduct screening of passengers, baggage, or cargo to ensure compliance with Transportation Security Administration (TSA) regulations. May operate basic…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/transportation-security-screener"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Transportation Security Screener

**Category:** Protective Service · **SOC code:** 33-9093 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 33-9093.00

Conduct screening of passengers, baggage, or cargo to ensure compliance with Transportation Security Administration (TSA) regulations. May operate basic security equipment such as x-ray machines and hand wands at screening checkpoints.

Also advertised as: Security Screener; Transportation Security Officer (TSO).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $66,770 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $32.10/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $44,700 to $78,350, with the middle half between $57,050 and $72,820
- **Total US employment:** 50,290
- **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:** -4.2% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 4,500 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 54/100 — 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 50,290 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $44,700 |
| 25th | $57,050 |
| 50th (median) | $66,770 |
| 75th | $72,820 |
| 90th | $78,350 |
| Mean (average) | $64,310 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NH | $76,130 | $73,086 | 80 |
| NJ | $74,400 | $68,379 | 1,200 |
| CA | $73,610 | $66,483 | 5,410 |
| MA | $73,510 | $69,508 | 1,380 |
| MD | $72,240 | $68,827 | 570 |
| NY | $72,010 | $66,725 | 4,240 |
| CO | $71,530 | $69,412 | 1,250 |
| RI | $71,510 | $69,916 | 160 |
| AK | $71,390 | $69,745 | 440 |
| IL | $70,570 | $70,600 | 1,970 |
| HI | $70,160 | $63,810 | 1,010 |
| VA | $69,910 | $69,147 | 1,870 |
| TX | $68,640 | $70,721 | 4,300 |
| MI | $67,390 | $70,040 | 1,070 |
| PA | $67,330 | $69,005 | 1,460 |

33 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 48 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/transportation-security-screener/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/transportation-security-screener.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 53,500 in the 2025–2035 base year to 51,200 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 2,200 jobs, or -4.2%. Declining: -4.2% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 4,500 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.

### 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 |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 85.2% |
| Some College Courses | 11.1% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 3.7% |

## What the work involves

- Test baggage for any explosive materials, using equipment such as explosive detection machines or chemical swab systems.
- Notify supervisors or other appropriate personnel when security breaches occur.
- Contact leads or supervisors to discuss objects of concern that are not on prohibited object lists.
- Search carry-on or checked baggage by hand when it is suspected to contain prohibited items such as weapons.
- Challenge suspicious people, requesting their badges and asking what their business is in a particular areas.
- Provide directions and respond to passenger inquiries.
- Check passengers' tickets to ensure that they are valid, and to determine whether passengers have designations that require special handling, such as providing photo identification.
- Inspect checked baggage for signs of tampering.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Speaking — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.5 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 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — 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
- Operations Monitoring — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 2.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 2.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Selective Attention — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive 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 Conventional (C), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 5.51 |
| R — Realistic | 5.21 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.61 |
| S — Social | 2.45 |
| I — Investigative | 2.01 |
| 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 | 90.1 |
| ESTJ | 83.4 |
| ISFJ | 83.0 |
| ESFJ | 68.1 |
| ISTP | 64.7 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Security Guard](https://nuecareer.com/careers/security-guard) — median $38,020
- [Transit and Railroad Police](https://nuecareer.com/careers/transit-and-railroad-police) — median $90,230
- [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
- [Airfield Operations Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/airfield-operations-specialist) — median $56,850
- [First-Line Supervisor of Security Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-security-workers) — median $55,940
- [Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agent and Travel Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/reservation-and-transportation-ticket-agent-and-travel-clerk) — median $44,390
- [Custom and Border Protection Officer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/custom-and-border-protection-officer) — median $76,210
- [Aircraft Cargo Handling Supervisor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/aircraft-cargo-handling-supervisor) — median $58,170
- [Compliance Officer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/compliance-officer) — median $80,730

## 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-security-screener