Veterinary Technician Statistics 2026: Job Market, Pay, Demand & Workforce

VeterinaryHires had 3,470 open veterinary technician listings from 675 employers on October 13, 2026.

687 were first posted in the previous 14 days and 1,275 in the previous 30 days.

At least 10.9% of veterinary technician listings were part-time on October 13, 2026.

Listings that name no schedule are counted as full-time, so the real part-time share is likely higher.

The benefit veterinary technician listings named most often on October 13, 2026 was dental or vision coverage, in 86.4% of listings, followed by health insurance (79.1%).

A listing that does not mention a benefit may still offer it.

To browse the openings themselves, see all veterinary technician listings.

The median annual wage for veterinary technologists and technicians was $47,380 in May 2025, and the middle half earned $38,910 to $57,650 (BLS OEWS, SOC 29-2056, May 2025).

Employers hiring veterinary technicians on VeterinaryHires advertise a median of $24.50 an hour across 368 employers on October 13, 2026; this is advertised pay, not earnings.

For pay by state, percentile and experience, see the veterinary technician salary guide, and for the full distribution of posted pay see our quarterly veterinary technician pay data release.

California had the most open veterinary technician listings on October 13, 2026, with 394 (11.4% of the national total).

Texas followed with 274 (7.9%).

To browse the openings in one state, start with veterinary technician openings in California.

675 employers had open veterinary technician listings on VeterinaryHires on October 13, 2026, and the five largest posted 57.4% of them.

589 employers (87.3%) had exactly one open veterinary technician listing.

The largest single employer, Banfield Pet Hospital, posted 26.2% of all veterinary technician listings, so this sample leans toward large multi-location employers.

BLS projects employment of veterinary technologists and technicians to grow 9.4% from 2025 to 2035, from about 131,400 to 143,800 jobs, against 3.5% for all occupations (BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35).

BLS expects about 13,400 veterinary technologist and technician openings a year on average from 2025 to 2035 (BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35).

Veterinary technologists and technicians are the largest occupation in veterinary practices, with 116,050 jobs in May 2025, or 24.6% of the industry's employment (BLS OEWS, NAICS 541940).

There are more than 200 CVTEA-accredited veterinary technology programs in the United States, 13 of them offered by distance education (AVMA CVTEA list, September 2026).

In 2025, 70% of graduates of CVTEA-accredited programs passed the VTNE on their first attempt, against 54% of on-the-job-trained candidates (AAVSB, reported by AVMA News, February 2026).

For what keeps credentialed technicians in a practice, see our technician retention guide.

For how to enter the field, see the veterinary technician career guide.

Listing figures are computed from every active, paid veterinary technician listing on VeterinaryHires at the time shown, and refreshed daily.

Listings on a job board are not a random sample of all veterinary technician jobs, so read them as a picture of current hiring, not of total employment.

Advertised pay is the midpoint of the range an employer posts, or its single figure, and hourly and annual postings are never converted into each other.

The headline is the employer median: each employer’s own median, then the median across employers, so a group posting hundreds of openings counts once.

A pay figure needs at least 30 listings from 10 employers and is withheld when one employer posted more than half of them.

Federal and association figures come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the American Veterinary Medical Association and are quoted as published, with the year in each sentence.