Land Surveyor Statistics 2026: Job Market, Pay, Demand & Workforce

SurveyorHires had 801 open land surveyor listings from 304 employers on November 14, 2026.

118 were first posted in the previous 14 days and 308 in the previous 30 days.

The benefit land surveyor listings named most often on November 14, 2026 was paid time off, in 48.2% of listings, followed by health insurance (42.6%).

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

To browse the openings themselves, see all land surveyor listings.

The federal figure here is for surveyors (SOC 17-1022), the BLS occupation that covers boundary and land surveyors, counted across all industries and for payroll employees only.

The median wage for that occupation was $75,440 a year in May 2025 (BLS OEWS, Surveyors (SOC 17-1022), national, all industries, May 2025).

The middle half of workers in that occupation earned $58,170 to $98,130 a year.

Employers hiring land surveyors on SurveyorHires advertise a median of $111,500 a year across 92 employers on November 14, 2026; this is advertised pay, not earnings.

For pay by state, percentile and experience, see the land surveyor salary guide.

Texas had the most open land surveyor listings on November 14, 2026, with 106 (13.2% of the national total).

California followed with 81 (10.1%).

To browse the openings in one state, start with land surveyor openings in Texas.

304 employers had open land surveyor listings on SurveyorHires on November 14, 2026, and the five largest posted 19.2% of them.

186 employers (61.2%) had exactly one open land surveyor listing.

Employers in all industries reported 50,830 surveyors (SOC 17-1022) on payroll in May 2025, a count that leaves out self-employed surveyors and firm owners (BLS OEWS May 2025).

BLS projects employment of surveyors to grow 5.8% from 2025 to 2035, from 52,000 to 55,000 jobs, with about 3,100 openings a year; these projection counts include the self-employed, so they run above the payroll count (BLS Employment Projections 2025–35).

Of the about 52,000 surveyor jobs in 2025, 71% were in architectural, engineering and related services, 10% in construction and 9% in government, and 2% of surveyors were self-employed (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook).

Architectural, engineering and related services firms (NAICS 541300, which includes survey firms) employed 37,260 surveyors in May 2025, at a median of $73,320 a year, a little below the all-industry median (BLS OEWS May 2025 industry estimates).

The highest state median annual wages for surveyors in May 2025 were in California ($105,330), Alaska ($99,550) and Oregon ($97,070), not adjusted for cost of living (BLS OEWS May 2025 state estimates).

BLS lists a bachelor's degree as the typical entry-level education for surveyors, who must be licensed before they can certify legal documents and offer surveying services to the public (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–35 projections).

For the land surveyor job outlook and the shortage debate, see our analysis.

For how to enter the field, see the land surveyor career guide.

Listing figures are computed from every active, paid land surveyor listing on SurveyorHires at the time shown, and refreshed every six hours.

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

This page is published only while the live sample has at least 300 listings from 25 employers.

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 figures come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the other sources listed below, quoted as published, with the year in each sentence.

Surveyor-in-training, survey project manager, geodetic, cadastral, county, hydrographic, mining, construction surveyor and geomatics listings are counted with this role. The BLS figures are for the surveyors occupation (SOC 17-1022) in all industries; BLS publishes no wage for survey firms alone (NAICS 541370) and no separate figure for licensed surveyors. OEWS counts payroll employees only, while the Employment Projections and Occupational Outlook Handbook counts include the self-employed.