OverviewSalaryAboutEducationWhere are the jobsEmploymentGenderRace/Origin
Overview
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.
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Titles for this career often contain these words
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Responsibilities and activities
Chemical technicians typically do the following:
- Monitor chemical processes and test the quality of products to make sure that they meet standards and specifications
- Set up and maintain laboratory instruments and equipment
- Troubleshoot production problems or malfunctioning instruments
- Prepare chemical solutions
- Conduct, compile, and interpret results of chemical and physical experiments, tests, and analyses for a variety of purposes, including research and development
- Prepare technical reports, graphs, and charts, and give presentations that summarize their results
Most chemical technicians work on teams. Typically, they are led by chemists or chemical engineers who direct their work and evaluate their results. However, they may serve as mentors to chemists who are new to a lab or to a specialized area of research.
Technicians who work in laboratories may help conduct experiments that contribute to research and development. For example, some chemical technicians help chemists and other scientists develop new medicines. In this way, chemical technicians often bridge the gap in knowledge remaining when a chemist moves on to a new assignment.
Other chemical technicians work in manufacturing and assist in developing more efficient production processes.
Salary
Median salary: $49,820 annually
Half of those employed in this career earn between $38,380 and $64,700.
Context: Median Salary
How do salaries for this career compare to other jobs' salaries?
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Salary growth for chemical technicians
Is this job likely to reward you for sticking with it through pay raises and promotions? The higher a job’s “experience quotient,” the more you are likely to get as you stay there.
Experience quotient percentile
Take a minute to look at how much you might expect your salary to increase with each five years' experience, as well as how the numbers working at each age change. Does this seem to be a job for the young or the old, or could it be a career offering steady salary growth for many years?
Salary distribution
Number employed
About Chemical Technicians
How do benefits for this career compare to other jobs? The availability of health care, especially employer provided health care, and pension plans can add significantly to the value of compensation you receive in a career. These charts compare how this career compares to other careers with regard to health care and pension plans.
Employee has health insurance
Employer is providing health insurance
Employer-provided pension plan is available
Worker concerns
Some jobs are more stressful than others, and some are just plain dangerous. The following list gives the percentages of chemical technicians who report hazardous or difficult situations typically occurring at least once a week.
- Time Pressure (88%)
- Hazardous Conditions (81%)
- Exposed to Contaminants (68%)
- Responsible for Others' Health (66%)
- Consequence of Error (59%)
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Personality and skills
Can you see yourself in the ranks of Chemical Technicians? Here are the skills and traits that could lead to success.
Ability to use technology
Chemical technicians must set up, operate, troubleshoot, and repair sophisticated equipment and instruments. They also may need to adjust the equipment to ensure that experiments and processes are running properly and safely.
Analytical skills
Chemical technicians must conduct scientific experiments with accuracy and precision.
Communication skills
Chemical technicians must explain their work to scientists and engineers, and to workers who may not have a technical background. They often write reports to communicate their results.
Critical-thinking skills
Chemical technicians reach their conclusions through sound reasoning and judgment.
Interpersonal skills
Chemical technicians must work well with others as part of a team because they often work with scientists, engineers, and other technicians.
Observation skills
Chemical technicians must carefully monitor chemical experiments and processes to note any unusual or unexpected results observed during an experiment. They must keep complete records of their work, including conditions and procedures.
Time-management skills
Chemical technicians often work on multiple tasks and projects at the same time and must prioritize their assignments.
Injury and Illness
About 28 chemical technicians become injured or ill for every 10,000 workers, making this job more dangerous than 58% of other careers. The most common specific illnesses or injuries are detailed following.
Bruises and contusions
All cuts, lacerations, punctures
Sprains, strains, tears
Education pathways to this career
Education attained by chemical technicians
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), chemical technicians typically hold a associate's degree.
Sometimes the typical education identified by the BLS differs a bit from the reality of the how much education current workers actually have. The donut shows the education level held by people currently working as chemical technicians as reported in responses to the American Community Survey.
Details: Education and training recommended for chemical technicians
For most jobs, chemical technicians need an associate’s degree in applied science or chemical technology or 2 years of postsecondary education.
Many technical and community colleges offer programs in applied sciences or chemical technology. Students typically take classes in math, physics, and biology, in addition to chemistry courses. Coursework in statistics and computer science is also useful because technicians routinely do data analysis and modeling.
One of the most important aspects of any degree program is laboratory time because it provides students with hands-on practice in conducting experiments and using various instruments and techniques properly. Many schools also offer internships and cooperative-education programs that help students gain employment experience while attending school.
Education level of Chemical Technicians
Only 36% of chemical technicians have a bachelor's degree or higher.
Education attained by chemical technicians
None
High School
Some College
Associate's Degree
Bachelor's Degree
Master's Degree
Professional Degree
Doctorate
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Programs recommended by the Department of Education
The Department of Education recommends the following college degree programs as preparation for this career. You can click a program row to learn more about the program and explore a list of schools that offer the program.
Program
Where are the jobs
State-by-state employment numbers
Some careers tend to be centered in specific parts of the country. For example, most jobs in fashion are in New York or California. Let's see if your dream job is easy to find in your dream location! We have a few choices for viewing the data that can help you get a full employment picture.
Select a state to see local area details
Number of Chemical Technicians per 1,000 workers (ACS)
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Job density versus job count
Which states hire the most chemical technicians? We wonder if that's a fair question since states come in all sizes, so instead let's start with the question of which states have the highest density of people working as chemical technicians. You can choose to view the number of jobs per state if you prefer.
Salaries by state
Let's get a feel for where chemical technicians earn the highest salaries. There are several choices for which data we consider and how we view that data, and each can lead to different conclusions, so please read on...
Median salary versus state ratio
We use two methods to compare salaries across states:
- In-state comparisons: the ratio of median (middle) salaries for chemical technicians compared to the median salary for all people working in each state, or
- Median salary: the unaltered median salaries for chemical technicians.
The darkest shading corresponds to states in which chemical technicians earn the highest salary when compared to other jobs in the state. We think this figure might be a better indicator than the actual salary for your buying power as a state resident.
Select a state to see local area details
Location-adjusted median salary for Chemical Technicians (ACS)
Employment
5% of Chemical technicians are working part time.
We’ve found that some jobs have a huge number of part-time workers, and typically that is because they are unable to find full-time work or the job itself can’t provide full-time hours. With 5% part-time workers, this occupation has a lower percentage of part-time workers than 77% of careers.
Employer types
This donut shares the break-down of workers by employer type, giving us a picture of what employers most typically hire for this career.
Employers of undefined (ACS)
Private for-profit
Private not-for-profit
Local government
State government
Federal government
Self-employed incorporated
Self-employed not incorporated
Working without pay
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Distribution: Salaries of chemical technicians by type of employer
Here are the salary distributions based on employer type.
Gender
Chemical technicians and gender
With 33% women, this occupation has a lower percentage of women than 54% of careers.
Gender of Chemical technicians
Men (67%)
Women (33%)
Distribution: salaries by gender
Does gender greatly influence your salary in this career? The closer the bars are, the less discrepancy there is.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
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Context: Women in the workforce
How does this career compare to other careers with regard to the percentage of women in the career.
Context: Salary inequity
The median salary for all full-time male workers in the
US exceeds the full-time median salary for women
by 19%.
The situation is a little better for chemical technicians, with the
median salary for men 14%
higher than the median salary for women.
Race/Origin
Race and origin of Chemical technicians
This donut shows the distribution of race and origin among those employed as Chemical technicians.
Race/origin of chemical technicians
White (76% )
Black (11% )
Asian (7% )
Other (2% )
Multiracial (2% )
Hispanic (1% )
American Indian (0% )
Pacific Islander (0% )
Distribution: salaries by race/origin
Some careers might have a pay disparity based on race or origin, the closer the below bars are the less of a discrepancy is present.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
