Veterinary Technologists and Technicians

Low Risk
Low High

Explore safer careers (2)

Lower estimated automation risk

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Why it fits

Fits technicians adding research depth while using animal health, vaccines, specimens, nutrition, reproduction, and lab methods.

Animal Trainers
12% automation risk | Minimal Risk
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Why it fits

Uses animal behavior observation, handling, conditioning, care routines, client instruction, safety, and progress records.

Alternative careers

Related career paths that build on similar skills and experience

Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technologists
33% automation risk | Low Risk
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Why it fits

Uses laboratory testing, instruments, specimens, quality control, records, and safety procedures with added clinical training.

Animal Control Workers
30% automation risk | Low Risk
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Why it fits

Transfers animal behavior, restraint, public communication, health observation, safety, incident notes, and field judgment.

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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
6.9/10
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

31% (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.

Assisting and caring for others

Very important
Why this matters
Provide hands-on help, emotional support, or personal care to people—work that depends on empathy, trust, and responding to individual needs in the moment.
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Working directly with the public

Quite important
Why this matters
The job involves face-to-face interaction with customers, clients, or guests—answering questions, handling requests, and managing service situations in real time. Roles with frequent public interaction are harder to replace end-to-end because they rely on trust, communication, and adapting to unpredictable human needs.
Jobs that also use this strength

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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Decision-making and problem solving

Quite 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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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 1 more strength

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 98 votes

24% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 31% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Veterinary Technologists and Technicians 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

Low paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Veterinary Technologists and Technicians was $45,980 ($22 per hour).

The median annual wage for Veterinary Technologists and Technicians was 7.1% lower 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

Very fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Veterinary Technologists and Technicians' job openings is expected to rise 9.1% 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

Greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 131,320 people employed as 'Veterinary Technologists and Technicians' within the United States.

This represents around 0.09% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 1 thousand people are employed as 'Veterinary Technologists and Technicians'.

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What people are saying (5)

Leave a comment
NE OH RVT (Low)
18 Apr 2024 04:22
Been in the field since 1980 - would like to see an AI get in some of the positions that we get in while working on patients. Don't think a lot of terrified animals will respond well. Need to be able to feel and not see what you need to do. Too much is hands or and hard to explain how you get to know when something just isn't right and despite all labs & such looking normal. Happen with my own cat - took 9 months for kidney disease to show up in his labs but knew something was off way earlier.
Kiki (Low)
07 Sep 2023 06:31
There is already ai microscopes to look at skin slides for yeast and bacteria. Also for reading blood slides. Crazy
Jenny (No chance)
04 May 2023 00:40
The sheer variety of tasks that a vet tech has to do -particularly in regard to animal handling. How on earth would you program a robot to catch a mouse that has jumped off the table and run behind some shelves? Or to bath dogs? Or to unpack deliveries? Or do animal restraint? Every animal and owner is different and needs a different approach. It is impossible to make a robot as flexible and as adaptable as God has made humans.
Aaron (Uncertain)
03 Dec 2019 21:07
Could go either way. Doctors are using robots and AI to perform surgeries. Vets can do the same thing I suppose. AI and robots will be the new Vet techs and vet assistants. The biggest thing I see when it come to AI is a huge suppressor of wages.
Joshua Myers
04 Oct 2022 20:09
It could happen. In my opinion, there are companies that care more about $$$$ than their people. For example, Tesla does replace people with robots. That's why it's very important to be careful with where you work.
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Job description

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.

O*NET-SOC code: 29-2056.00