Employment: Broadcast and Sound Engineering Technicians and Radio Operators

Broadcast and sound engineering technicians and radio operators held about 93,000 jobs in 2002. Their employment was distributed among the following detailed occupations:

About 32 percent worked in broadcasting (except Internet) and 16 percent worked in the motion picture and sound recording industries. Almost 1 in 10 were self-employed. Television stations employ, on average, many more technicians than do radio stations. Some technicians are employed in other industries, producing employee communications, sales, and training programs. Technician jobs in television are located in virtually all cities, whereas jobs in radio also are found in many small towns. The highest paying and most specialized jobs are concentrated in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, DC—the originating centers for most network or news programs. Motion picture production jobs are concentrated in Los Angeles and New York City.