Sound Engineering Technicians

Moderate Risk
43%
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Vote Comments (7)
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AUTOMATION RISK
CALCULATED
55%
(Moderate Risk)
POLLING
30%
(Low Risk)
Average: 43%
LABOR DEMAND
GROWTH
-0.5%
by year 2033
WAGES
$59,430
or $28.57 per hour
Volume
14,600
as of 2023
SUMMARY
JOB SCORE
4.5/10

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Calculated automation risk

55% (Moderate Risk)

Moderate Risk (41-60%): Occupations with a moderate risk of automation usually involve routine tasks but still require some human judgment and interaction.

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:

  • Fine Arts

  • Originality

  • Finger Dexterity

  • Social Perceptiveness

User poll

30% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. However, the automation risk level we have generated suggests a higher chance of automation: 55% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

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






Sentiment

The following graph is included wherever there is a substantial amount of votes to render meaningful data. These visual representations display user poll results over time, providing a significant indication of sentiment trends.

Sentiment over time (yearly)

Growth

Slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Sound Engineering Technicians' job openings is expected to decline 0.5% by 2033

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2021 and 2031
Updated projections are due 09-2024.

Wages

Moderately paid relative to other professions

In 2023, the median annual wage for 'Sound Engineering Technicians' was $59,430, or $28 per hour

'Sound Engineering Technicians' were paid 23.7% higher than the national median wage, which stood at $48,060

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Volume

Lower range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2023 there were 14,600 people employed as 'Sound Engineering Technicians' within the United States.

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

Put another way, around 1 in 10 thousand people are employed as 'Sound Engineering Technicians'.

Job description

Assemble and operate equipment to record, synchronize, mix, edit, or reproduce sound, including music, voices, or sound effects, for theater, video, film, television, podcasts, sporting events, and other productions.

SOC Code: 27-4014.00

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Comments

Audrey Gardner (Uncertain) 11 months ago
Sound engineering requires not only creativity, but it also has niches and processes that only humans can emulate. The reason I'm uncertain on this, is because of the recent spike in music and sound related AI generation.
2 0 Reply
Laszlo 5 years ago
This is my dream job. I'm constantly working towards it for years.
I think every song and every audio engineer is different. And that is the beauty of this. We don't need computer programs to do the mixing and mastering... That would kill the creativity behind a song. And this occupation is full of emotions. The artist puts his/her emotions into the song. The mixing engineer receieves them and puts a little bit of him/herself into the final "product".
I don't want songs to sound nearly the same all the time...
So I will constantly fight against automation in this field!
Please don't take my dream job away!!!
1 0 Reply
Lawrence (Highly likely) 5 years ago
As someone has said here...when you see what RX can do now in the program's infancy, and you follow the logical conclusion...it's clear to see plugins and presets are going to be the way of the future. I work with RX every day at an Audiobook production house. People with no engineering training are able to mass process, or batch process, all sorts of voices. Does it sound perfect? Not yet. Is it far off? Not at all.
0 0 Reply
copaceaenu stefan (No chance) 5 years ago
because any song u need to mix have another structure, and there are over 1 million songs or maybe more and a robot can't learn that much
0 1 Reply
Raf (Uncertain) 5 years ago
When I see what rx can do in post, I'm forced to admit that the job gonna be more automated.
0 0 Reply
Jared (No chance) 5 years ago
Robots can't do my job.
1 0 Reply
Jessica (Uncertain) 5 years ago
A great deal of shows are already automated, it's just mostly limited to cruise ships at the moment
0 0 Reply

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