---
title: "Veterinary Technician"
description: "Perform medical tests in a laboratory environment for use in the treatment and diagnosis of diseases in animals. Prepare vaccines and serums for…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/veterinary-technician"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Veterinary Technician

**Category:** Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · **SOC code:** 29-2056 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 29-2056.00

Perform medical tests in a laboratory environment for use in the treatment and diagnosis of diseases in animals. Prepare vaccines and serums for prevention of diseases. Prepare tissue samples, take blood samples, and execute laboratory tests, such as urinalysis and blood counts. Clean and sterilize instruments and materials and maintain equipment and machines. May assist a veterinarian during surgery.

Also advertised as: Certified Veterinary Technician (CVT); Emergency Veterinary Technician (Emergency Vet Tech); Internal Medicine Veterinary Technician (Internal Medicine Vet Tech); Licensed Veterinary Technician (LVT); Registered Veterinary Technician (RVT); Veterinarian Technician (Vet Tech); Veterinary Laboratory Technician (Vet Lab Tech); Veterinary Nurse (Vet Nurse).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $47,380 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $22.78/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $35,710 to $63,180, with the middle half between $38,910 and $57,650
- **Total US employment:** 129,140
- **Typical entry education:** Associate's
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +9.1% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 14,300 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 59/100 — 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 129,140 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $35,710 |
| 25th | $38,910 |
| 50th (median) | $47,380 |
| 75th | $57,650 |
| 90th | $63,180 |
| Mean (average) | $49,120 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DC | $61,270 | $55,750 | 120 |
| CA | $60,630 | $54,760 | 11,310 |
| WA | $59,740 | $55,825 | 2,290 |
| NY | $59,010 | $54,679 | 5,350 |
| MN | $57,270 | $58,071 | 3,560 |
| OR | $55,810 | $53,995 | 1,120 |
| VA | $52,090 | $51,521 | 2,790 |
| CT | $50,950 | $49,175 | 1,690 |
| ME | $50,810 | $52,354 | 910 |
| NV | $50,250 | $50,261 | 1,120 |
| MI | $49,710 | $51,664 | 2,550 |
| CO | $49,650 | $48,180 | 3,720 |
| MA | $49,540 | $46,843 | 3,990 |
| VT | $49,490 | $50,522 | 390 |
| NJ | $49,050 | $45,081 | 2,910 |

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

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 134,200 in the 2024–2034 base year to 146,400 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 12,200 jobs, or +9.1%. Much faster than average: 9.1% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 14,300 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:** Associate's degree (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 |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma | 41.3% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 26.4% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 14.6% |
| Some College Courses | 7.4% |
| Doctoral Degree | 5.5% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 4.9% |

## What the work involves

- Prepare and administer medications, vaccines, serums, or treatments, as prescribed by veterinarians.
- Prepare animals for surgery, performing such tasks as shaving surgical areas.
- Clean kennels, animal holding areas, surgery suites, examination rooms, or animal loading or unloading facilities to control the spread of disease.
- Provide assistance with animal euthanasia and the disposal of remains.
- Restrain animals during exams or procedures.
- Perform laboratory tests on blood, urine, or feces, such as urinalyses or blood counts, to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of animal health problems.
- Collect, prepare, and label samples for laboratory testing, culture, or microscopic examination.
- Clean and sterilize instruments, equipment, or materials.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.0 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 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Medicine and Dentistry — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Biology — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Chemistry — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.8 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), Investigative (I), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 6.71 |
| I — Investigative | 5.26 |
| C — Conventional | 4.56 |
| S — Social | 3.02 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |
| E — Enterprising | 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 | 86.9 |
| ISTP | 79.5 |
| ISFJ | 73.3 |
| INTJ | 70.1 |
| ESTJ | 64.6 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Veterinary Assistant and Laboratory Animal Caretaker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/veterinary-assistant-and-laboratory-animal-caretaker) — median $38,150
- [Surgical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/surgical-assistant) — median $66,800
- [Medical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-assistant) — median $45,690
- [Cardiovascular Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cardiovascular-technologist-and-technician) — median $74,310
- [Surgical Technologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/surgical-technologist) — median $64,650
- [Emergency Medical Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/emergency-medical-technician) — median $44,470
- [Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-and-clinical-laboratory-technologist) — median $62,930
- [Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-and-clinical-laboratory-technician) — median $62,930
- [Radiologic Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/radiologic-technologist-and-technician) — median $80,110
- [Phlebotomist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/phlebotomist) — median $45,230

### Veterinary Technician compared with

- [Vet Tech vs Vet Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/vet-tech-vs-vet-assistant) — side by side on BLS wage percentiles, projected growth, openings and entry requirements

## 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/veterinary-technician