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Camino · CA

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

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Commercial Pilots

SOC 53-2012 · 2024-2034

Pilot and navigate the flight of fixed-wing aircraft on nonscheduled air carrier routes, or helicopters. Requires Commercial Pilot certificate. Includes charter pilots with similar certification, and air ambulance and air tour pilots. Excludes regional, national, and international airline pilots.

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

The job this trains for

Typical pay in California
$169,215per year
Projected openings
7,200
Projected change
+19.6%
Usually needs
Postsecondary non-degree award

Bright Outlook — a U.S. Department of Labor designation
Rapid Growth

The Department's own designation, made from its national projections. It is not this project's assessment and it is not California's: every other figure on this page comes from California's projection, which can point the other way and for some occupations does.

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. Operation and Control
  2. Operations Monitoring
  3. Monitoring
  4. Critical Thinking
  5. Judgment and Decision Making
  6. Active Listening

Pay by region

RegionTypical pay in CaliforniaProjected openings
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale MD (Los Angeles County)$207,0462,620
Oakland-Fremont-Berkeley MD (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties)$174,136390
San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City MD (San Francisco and San Mateo Counties)$174,136270
Chico MSA (Butte County)$114,80550
Santa Rosa-Petaluma MSA (Sonoma County)$110,810240
Santa Maria-Santa Barbara MSA (Santa Barbara County)$109,232100
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA (San Benito and Santa Clara Counties)$107,501230
Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine MD (Orange County)$106,480350
Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom MSA (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo Counties)$105,811350
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad MSA (San Diego County)$105,463660
North Valley-Northern Mountains Region (Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Trinity Counties)$104,613140
Bakersfield-Delano MSA (Kern County)$100,485150
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties)$96,807350
Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura MSA (Ventura County)$93,745270
North Coast Region (Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, and Mendocino Counties)$84,15740
Fresno MSA (Fresno and Madera Counties)$78,104110
Merced MSA (Merced County)$76,65980
San Rafael MD (Marin County)Not reported30

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.

The job this trains forTypical pay in CaliforniaProjected openingsProjected change
Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers$361,64713,570+11.3%
Air Traffic Controllers$163,5842,640+12%
Airfield Operations Specialists$63,9701,740+12.5%
Transportation Inspectors$84,8172,030+5%
Locomotive Engineers$78,7571,130-6.3%
Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians$88,53411,680+12.8%

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