Not a California state website. An independent project built from public data.
Afterward · CA

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

Español (inicio)

← Back to search

Automotive Service Technicians and Mechanics

SOC 49-3023 · 2024-2034

Diagnose, adjust, repair, or overhaul automotive vehicles.

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

What California expects of this job

Typical pay in California
$66,817per year
Projected openings
66,070
Projected change
+4.1%
Usually needs
Postsecondary non-degree award

Skills this work uses most

O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, rates how important each of these is to this work, and they are listed in that order, most important first. The ratings themselves are not shown, because the data carries the number without the scale it was measured on. The names are as published, in English.

  1. Repairing
  2. Troubleshooting
  3. Critical Thinking
  4. Operations Monitoring
  5. Equipment Maintenance
  6. Judgment and Decision Making

Pay by region

RegionTypical pay in CaliforniaProjected openings
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA (San Benito and Santa Clara Counties)$79,3433,000
San Rafael MD (Marin County)$77,626490
San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City MD (San Francisco and San Mateo Counties)$77,6152,460
Oakland-Fremont-Berkeley MD (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties)$75,8314,690
Santa Rosa-Petaluma MSA (Sonoma County)$73,284920
Napa MSA (Napa County)$69,084220
Santa Cruz-Watsonville MSA (Santa Cruz County)$67,954380
Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom MSA (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo Counties)$66,6814,760
Santa Maria-Santa Barbara MSA (Santa Barbara County)$65,787580
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties)$65,3057,500
Vallejo MSA (Solano County)$65,150810
Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine MD (Orange County)$64,5826,030
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale MD (Los Angeles County)$64,49512,970
Stockton-Lodi MSA (San Joaquin County)$63,7131,260
San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles MSA (San Luis Obispo County)$62,932460
North Valley-Northern Mountains Region (Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Trinity Counties)$62,727420
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad MSA (San Diego County)$62,6865,270
Chico MSA (Butte County)$62,306340
Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura MSA (Ventura County)$62,2961,250
Hanford-Corcoran MSA (Kings County)$61,659200
North Coast Region (Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, and Mendocino Counties)$59,030400
Fresno MSA (Fresno and Madera Counties)$58,8141,660
Bakersfield-Delano MSA (Kern County)$58,3011,240
Redding MSA (Shasta County)$58,270390
Eastern Sierra-Mother Lode Region (Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Inyo, Mariposa, Mono, and Tuolumne Counties)$58,106220
Merced MSA (Merced County)$56,873360
Modesto MSA (Stanislaus County)$56,873990
El Centro MSA (Imperial County)$54,378300
Yuba City MSA (Sutter and Yuba Counties)$51,975280
Visalia MSA (Tulare County)$47,127640

What the pay actually ranges across

The lowest-paid tenth earn under
$39,260
A quarter earn under
$47,897
Half earn under
$66,817
Three quarters earn under
$79,239
The highest-paid tenth earn over
$97,974

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
Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists$76,04120,390+5.1%
Engine and Other Machine Assemblers$47,878960-16.7%
Motorboat Mechanics and Service Technicians$64,0921,350+7.7%
Motorcycle Mechanics$58,6531,890+5.3%
Control and Valve Installers and Repairers, Except Mechanical Door$103,0953,850+7%
Mechanical Engineering Technologists and Technicians$89,8363,330+5.4%

Programs that train for this job — 80