Surveyors

Low Risk
Low High

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Occupation snapshot

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
6.0/10
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.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

28% (Low Risk)

Low Risk (21-40%): This occupation has a lower risk of full replacement by AI, software, or robotic systems. Some tasks may be automated or assisted, but the role usually still relies on human judgement, communication, responsibility, physical adaptability, or practical decision-making.

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

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Decision-making and problem solving

Very important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
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Thinking creatively

Quite important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
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Social perceptiveness

Quite important
Why this matters
Noticing others’ emotions and reactions in the moment and adjusting what you say or do based on why they’re responding that way.
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Coaching and developing others

Quite important
Why this matters
Helps people learn and improve through coaching, mentoring, and feedback. This relies on trust, motivation, and adapting guidance to each person—work that’s hard to replace end-to-end with automation.
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Coordinating others’ work

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together, assigning tasks, and keeping a group aligned so work gets done.
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Show 3 more strengths

Communicating with people outside the organization

Quite important
Why this matters
Represents the organization to customers, the public, or government—handling questions, concerns, and relationship-building through conversations, writing, calls, or email.
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Developing objectives and strategies

Quite important
Why this matters
Sets long-term goals and chooses strategies and actions to reach them, weighing tradeoffs and adapting plans as conditions change.
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Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
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What users think

Based on 203 votes

41% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted they are unsure if this occupation will be automated. However, employees may be able to find reassurance in the automated risk level we have generated, which shows 28% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

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

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

High paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Surveyors was $72,740 ($35 per hour).

The median annual wage for Surveyors was 46.9% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Surveyors' job openings is expected to rise 4.4% by 2034

View employment trend

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.

Volume

Moderate range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 53,080 people employed as 'Surveyors' 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 'Surveyors'.

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What people are saying (5)

Leave a comment
Joel
08 May 2023 17:43
The collection of measurement data is more or less automated already. The evaluation of that data in reference to output of say topographic maps or GIS is also automated to some extent. What I don't think can or will be is the evaluation of spacial data for establishment of boundaries. The variables involved are complex and are weighed differently in a case by case manner. I don't think that machine learning could be reliably accurate in weighing evidence for boundary control.
caleb lutomski (Low)
13 Apr 2023 19:52
This line of work is just too precise to be fully taken over by robots at least in the foreseeable future. There is also a lot of common sense that goes into the decisions that these guys make that would be hard to program. In my opinion, Even if we did advance enough to get drones to do this precisely enough, this is a job that people take pride in and get huge satisfaction from and we should really leave it to the pros. Furthermore, this is a job that people seek out and enjoy instead of just falling into other mindless jobs that could certainly use some automation.
joe buddin (Moderate)
12 Apr 2021 18:26
Some places like the beach are surveyed by airplanes and technology is advancing pretty fast
Alejandro (No chance)
19 Jul 2020 21:43
The science of measuring is one of the oldest known professions. Among so many related tasks, the determination and location of a property can hardly be replaced by a robot, for this it is necessary to evaluate a number of data in the field for the purpose that is pursued. A robot could not do it the same
Luciano (No chance)
23 Jun 2019 08:44
Too many things to know, with in the moment decisions to do.
Leave a reply about this occupation
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Job description

Make exact measurements and determine property boundaries. Provide data relevant to the shape, contour, gravitation, location, elevation, or dimension of land or land features on or near the earth's surface for engineering, mapmaking, mining, land evaluation, construction, and other purposes.

O*NET-SOC code: 17-1022.00