The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics found that most surgical technicians work in hospitals. There were about 91,500 working technicians in 2008, and 71 percent of those were employed by hospitals, mainly in delivery and operating rooms. The remaining 29 percent of technicians found work in places ranging from physician and dentist offices where outpatient procedures were performed to working directly with surgeons as part of dedicated surgical teams. (Such technicians are often called “private scrubs.”)

The BLS has projected that job opportunities for surgical technicians will grow by 25 percent through 2018, a much faster acceleration than the national average for all occupations. That expansion can largely be attributed to the growing number of surgeries that will be required by an aging population, especially as members of the baby boom generation enter the later stages of life and begin to require more medical care, which means more operations and, accordingly, more qualified surgical technicians. Additionally, continuous breakthroughs in surgical technology will make more operations easier to perform and allow them to be performed in higher quantities, which will also fuel a greater need for techs. Over the next decade, hospitals will continue to employ the bulk of surgical technicians, though there will be faster growth in job opportunities in physicians’ offices as well as in outpatient care centers.

The same entity also collected salary information for surgical technicians in 2008, and as of May of that year, the average annual salary for technicians was $40,070. Those in the bottom 10 percent of earners brought in $27,510, while the top 10 percent earned $54,300. The highest level of employment was in general medical and surgical hospitals, which employed 62,760 technicians who earned an average of $39,770 a year. The top paying positions were in offices of other health practitioners, and though only 510 surgical technicians worked in that field for 2008, they earned an average of $54,710.

Salary and job opportunities can also be affected by a number of factors, including location, experience, and education. For example, a recent survey found that technicians with less than a year on the job earned between $25,616 and $35,537, while those with 20 years’ experience or more saw salaries between $33,577 and $53,493. Additionally, your chances of finding a good job with rewarding pay drastically improve when you’re certified. There are a pair of organizations — the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs and the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools — that can help you find online schools that will prepare you to sit for the certification exam after you graduate. Although certification is voluntary, most employers prefer surgical technicians who are certified.