Party Chief Statistics 2026: Job Market, Pay, Demand & Workforce

SurveyorHires had 421 open party chief listings from 181 employers on November 14, 2026.

68 were first posted in the previous 14 days and 203 in the previous 30 days.

At least 1.9% of party chief listings were part-time on November 14, 2026.

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

The benefit party chief listings named most often on November 14, 2026 was paid time off, in 45.4% of listings, followed by health insurance (38.7%).

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

To browse the openings themselves, see all party chief listings.

BLS publishes no party chief-only wage, so the figure here is for surveying and mapping technicians (SOC 17-3031), the closest BLS occupation, which counts party chiefs together with the rest of the survey crew and with mapping technicians because BLS has no party chief code.

The median wage for that occupation was $54,240 a year in May 2025 (BLS OEWS, Surveying and Mapping Technicians (SOC 17-3031), national, all industries, May 2025).

The middle half of workers in that occupation earned $45,430 to $66,700 a year.

Employers hiring party chiefs on SurveyorHires advertise a median of $35.00 an hour across 48 employers on November 14, 2026; this is advertised pay, not earnings.

Texas had the most open party chief listings on November 14, 2026, with 61 (14.5% of the national total).

North Carolina followed with 40 (9.5%).

To browse the openings in one state, start with party chief openings in Texas.

181 employers had open party chief listings on SurveyorHires on November 14, 2026, and the five largest posted 19.2% of them.

109 employers (60.2%) had exactly one open party chief listing.

BLS has no party chief occupation; the closest one, surveying and mapping technicians (SOC 17-3031), had 58,010 payroll employees in all industries in May 2025, crew chiefs and crew members together (BLS OEWS May 2025).

BLS projects employment of surveying and mapping technicians, the crew occupation that includes unlicensed party chiefs, to grow 5.8% from 2025 to 2035, with about 6,900 openings a year; BLS makes no separate projection for party chiefs (BLS Employment Projections 2025–35).

The NCEES Model Law lets employees of a licensed surveyor do surveying work that involves no final surveying decisions when it is done under the responsible charge of, and verified by, the licensee, which is the basis on which unlicensed party chiefs run field work (NCEES Model Law 2026).

Level III of the NSPS Certified Survey Technician program has three exams, Party Chief Boundary, Party Chief Construction and Chief Computer Operator, and a candidate must pass one before Level IV (CST program book, July 2024).

For how to enter the field, see the party chief career guide.

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

Listings on a job board are not a random sample of all party chief 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.

BLS has no party chief occupation, so every BLS figure on this page is for surveying and mapping technicians (SOC 17-3031), which counts crew chiefs, instrument operators, rod persons and mapping technicians together; a licensed surveyor who runs a crew is counted as a surveyor (SOC 17-1022) instead. No BLS figure here is party chief pay.