Yes — demand is growing.
BLS projects employment of veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers to grow 9% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the average for all occupations, with about 23,200 openings a year.
Many of those openings come from replacing workers who change occupations or leave the labor force, so the practical story is steady hiring in a growing occupation.
Here's what the projections, the openings and the current listings mean for your job hunt and your pay.
Projected growth: 9% through 2035
Yes — and BLS puts a number on it.
Employment of veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers is projected to grow 9% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the average for all occupations.
The same BLS Employment Projections program counts about 132,100 jobs in the occupation in 2025 and projects an employment change of 12,000 jobs over the decade.
BLS attributes the expected growth to increases in consumer pet-related spending driving employment in the veterinary services industry.
That tells you what kind of growth it is: it rides on household spending on veterinary care, not on a licensing or credential change — certification is not mandatory for the role.
Two caveats keep the number honest.
First, BLS tracks a combined federal occupation, so the 9% covers laboratory animal caretakers as well as clinic-side assistants; the clinic role itself is what our veterinary assistant guide describes day to day.
Second, "much faster than average" is a growth rate, not a headcount: 12,000 net new jobs spread over a decade and across the whole country is real but modest — which is why the openings figure matters more to a job seeker than the growth rate does.
Two BLS programs, two job counts
Annual openings: about 23,200 a year — and why turnover drives so many
BLS projects about 23,200 openings a year for the occupation across 2025–2035, and it is explicit about where they come from: many are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire.
Set that against the 12,000 net new jobs and the shape of the hiring market is clear — over the decade, replacement needs generate far more openings than growth does.
Much of the hiring you'll compete for exists because someone left a seat, not because a new one was built.
Why so much churn?
BLS does not publish a turnover rate for this occupation, so any precise percentage you see quoted elsewhere is an estimate.
What the record does support is mechanism and structure.
The mechanism, per BLS, is workers moving to other occupations or out of the labor force.
The structure is an occupation built for easy entry: the typical route in asks for a high school diploma or equivalent, no related work experience, and short-term on-the-job training, and certification is not mandatory.
Nothing in those entry requirements screens newcomers out — and the same openings data shows many assistants eventually move to other occupations or leave the labor force.
BLS also notes the work itself may be physically and emotionally demanding: assistants may handle sick or abused animals and may assist in euthanizing animals.
That is part of the job's reality, not a verdict on the outlook — an occupation can be demanding and still grow much faster than average, and this one is projected to do both.
Where demand is strongest
One industry dominates: 86% of veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers work in veterinary services, against 5% in educational services and 1% in scientific research and development services.
Veterinary services (NAICS 541940) is the federal industry category for establishments of licensed veterinary practitioners — animal hospitals, veterinary clinics and veterinarians' offices — plus veterinary testing laboratories.
BLS's OEWS survey counted about 113,130 workers from this occupation inside veterinary services establishments in May 2025.
So the outlook for assistants is, in practice, the outlook for veterinary services employers — and the live posting board shows what that demand looks like right now.
On October 22, 2026, VeterinaryHires listed 2,429 open veterinary assistant jobs from 450 employers across 48 states and the District of Columbia.
The employer mix is the more striking number: the five largest employers accounted for 63.1% of listings that day, led by Banfield Pet Hospital with 791.
That mix means two different doors.
The five largest employers post the volume; the rest of that day's listings came from the other employers among the 450 — a long tail the concentration figure doesn't describe.
Where you'd rather work — a corporate hospital, an independent clinic, a shelter — changes what the job is day to day: see GP vs ER vs shelter for the settings themselves, and working at Banfield, VCA or another corporate hospital for life inside the big groups.
What it means for pay and getting hired
Growth is not a pay promise.
BLS OEWS May 2025 puts the median annual wage for the combined occupation at $38,150 ($18.34 an hour), with the lowest 10% earning less than $30,120 and the highest 10% more than $49,150.
Inside veterinary services — the industry where 86% of the occupation works — the medians run slightly lower: $37,930 a year and $18.24 an hour, with the 10th percentile at $29,950 and the 90th at $47,890.
In the two other industries BLS breaks out, the medians run higher — $47,860 in educational services and $49,230 in scientific research and development services — but those figures largely reflect laboratory animal caretaker jobs, not clinic assistants.
Job listings answer a different question, and the two series should never be read as one.
On October 22, 2026, employers hiring veterinary assistants on VeterinaryHires advertised a median of $19.50 an hour (326 employers, 442 listings stating hourly pay).
That figure is advertised pay — an offer on a live posting — while the BLS numbers describe what workers actually earned in a survey year.
The BLS figure is a national survey median; the listing figure is a median across live postings.
They measure different things at different moments.
For getting hired, the conditions favor applicants who run a deliberate search.
Demand is projected to grow much faster than average, about 23,200 openings a year come open, and the entry bar is low — a high school diploma, no required experience, on-the-job training, no mandatory certification.
The five-employer concentration means corporate applications produce volume — and listings spread across 450 employers show the hiring isn't confined to the big five.
For the state-by-state picture, the medians are in highest-paying states for veterinary assistants, and if you have no experience yet, start with how to get a vet job with no experience.
One more lever sits above this role: credentialing.
Veterinary technologists and technicians working in veterinary services earned a median of $47,170 in May 2025, well above the assistant median in the same industry — and the credential is regulated state by state, so the route depends on where you live.
The career path guide covers the rungs from here.
Advertised pay is not earnings