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California training programs, and what happened to the people who took them

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Emergency Medical Technicians

SOC 29-2042 · 2024-2034

Assess injuries and illnesses and administer basic emergency medical care. May transport injured or sick persons to medical facilities.

How the U.S. Department of Labor describes this work. Published in English only.

What California expects of this job

Typical pay in California
$47,678per year
Projected openings
19,450
Projected change
+15%
Usually needs
Postsecondary non-degree award

Bright Outlook — a U.S. Department of Labor designation
Rapid Growth

The Department's own designation, made from its national projections. It is not this project's assessment and it is not California's: every other figure on this page comes from California's projection, which can point the other way and for some occupations does.

Pay by region

RegionTypical pay in CaliforniaProjected openings
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA (San Benito and Santa Clara Counties)$59,833640
San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City MD (San Francisco and San Mateo Counties)$57,871380
Salinas MSA (Monterey County)$51,441100
Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom MSA (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo Counties)$51,2871,010
Oakland-Fremont-Berkeley MD (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties)$49,7672,190
Santa Rosa-Petaluma MSA (Sonoma County)$49,643260
North Valley-Northern Mountains Region (Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Trinity Counties)$48,966140
Stockton-Lodi MSA (San Joaquin County)$48,308240
San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles MSA (San Luis Obispo County)$47,959110
Bakersfield-Delano MSA (Kern County)$47,240200
Santa Cruz-Watsonville MSA (Santa Cruz County)$46,76790
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale MD (Los Angeles County)$46,3272,680
North Coast Region (Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, and Mendocino Counties)$46,315150
Eastern Sierra-Mother Lode Region (Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Inyo, Mariposa, Mono, and Tuolumne Counties)$45,268100
Vallejo MSA (Solano County)$44,929350
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties)$44,4461,400
Yuba City MSA (Sutter and Yuba Counties)$44,18970
Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine MD (Orange County)$43,9772,000
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad MSA (San Diego County)$42,1041,280
Fresno MSA (Fresno and Madera Counties)$38,273520
Visalia MSA (Tulare County)$34,986140
Merced MSA (Merced County)Not reported140
Modesto MSA (Stanislaus County)Not reported320
San Rafael MD (Marin County)Not reported50

What the pay actually ranges across

The lowest-paid tenth earn under
$39,824
A quarter earn under
$43,803
Half earn under
$47,678
Three quarters earn under
$60,837
The highest-paid tenth earn over
$80,338

A median is one point. These are the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2026 figures for California, and they say how far apart the people doing this job actually are. Read them as the spread across everyone already in the work — not as a starting wage and not as a promise about where anyone lands.

Similar work

O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, names these as occupations involving work similar to this one — its own reading of the job, not a grouping by code. They keep O*NET's order, and only those California publishes a projection for are shown.

OccupationTypical pay in CaliforniaProjected openingsProjected change
Paramedics$76,6783,120+15.7%
Ambulance Drivers and Attendants, Except Emergency Medical Technicians$36,9411,770+7.1%
Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses$81,98281,600+15%
Registered Nurses$144,197228,840+13.5%
Cardiovascular Technologists and Technicians$80,3584,280+15.5%

Programs that train for this job — 43