Chemical Technicians

Moderate Risk
60%

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Vote Comments (3)
AUTOMATION RISK
CALCULATED
68%
(High Risk)
POLLING
52%
(Moderate Risk, Based on 77 votes)
Average: 60%
LABOR DEMAND
GROWTH
5.5%
by year 2033
WAGES
$56,750
or $27.28 per hour
Volume
55,880
as of 2023
SUMMARY
What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
4.4/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

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Calculated automation risk

68% (High Risk)

High Risk (61-80%): Jobs in this category face a significant threat from automation, as many of their tasks can be easily automated using current or near-future technologies.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Some quite important qualities of the job are difficult to automate:

  • Manual Dexterity

  • Finger Dexterity

  • Originality

User poll

52% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted they are unsure if this occupation will be automated. However, the automation risk level we have generated suggests a much higher chance of automation: 68% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Chemical Technicians will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

The following graph is shown where there are enough votes to produce meaningful data. It displays user poll results over time, providing a clear indication of sentiment trends.

Sentiment over time (yearly)

Growth

Fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Chemical Technicians' job openings is expected to rise 5.5% by 2033

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Wages

Moderately paid relative to other professions

In 2023, the median annual wage for 'Chemical Technicians' was 56.750 $, or 27 $ per hour

'Chemical Technicians' were paid 18.1% higher than the national median wage, which stood at 48.060 $

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Volume

Moderate range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2023 there were 55,880 people employed as 'Chemical Technicians' within the United States.

This represents around < 0.001% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 2 thousand people are employed as 'Chemical Technicians'.

Job description

Conduct chemical and physical laboratory tests to assist scientists in making qualitative and quantitative analyses of solids, liquids, and gaseous materials for research and development of new products or processes, quality control, maintenance of environmental standards, and other work involving experimental, theoretical, or practical application of chemistry and related sciences.

SOC Code: 19-4031.00

Comments (3)

Nick (No chance)
08 Nov 2025 08:16
I have been an analytical chemist for a decade. Half the job is hands on (Routine testing, Analytical request investigatios, method development, method validation, equipment calibration), half of it is back end work (investigating out of specification results, creating safety procedures, reporting results).

We have Automated equipment (dissolution systems, UPLCs, Autotitrators) but you still need analysts to calibrate them, prepare standards, solutions, run the equipment, trouble shoot, repair, interpret data.

Also a lot of organic chemistry analysis is old-school, fumehood chemistry that can't feasibly be automated.
JB (Low)
13 Mar 2021 17:11
Data must be properly interpreted. Instruments monitored for proper operation/maintained/repaired. Outliers identified and verified. All within defined, often very short, windows to prevent loss of $$/product/LIVES.
Aaa (Low)
16 Feb 2021 19:31
I find it hard to believe a robot could deal with things like this
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