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Job outlook for operations support technicians in the United States
Operations support technician job growth summary. After extensive research, interviews, and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
The projected operations support technician job growth rate is 10% from 2018-2028.
About 83,100 new jobs for operations support technicians are projected over the next decade.
Operations support technician salaries have increased 9% for operations support technicians in the last 5 years.
There are over 127,117 operations support technicians currently employed in the United States.
There are 157,716 active operations support technician job openings in the US.
The average operations support technician salary is $38,086.
Are operations support technician jobs in demand?
Operations support technician job and salary trends over time
Operations support technician jobs over time
Operations support technician job growth rate over time
| Year | # of jobs | % of population |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 127,117 | 0.04% |
| 2020 | 141,829 | 0.04% |
| 2019 | 121,982 | 0.04% |
| 2018 | 86,051 | 0.03% |
| 2017 | 81,608 | 0.02% |
Average operations support technician salary over time
Operations support technician salary by year
| Year | Avg. salary | Hourly rate | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | $38,086 | $18.31 | +3.4% |
| 2025 | $36,831 | $17.71 | +2.3% |
| 2024 | $35,997 | $17.31 | +1.5% |
| 2023 | $35,454 | $17.05 | +1.7% |
| 2022 | $34,875 | $16.77 | +1.6% |
Operations support technician jobs by state
Most common states for operations support technicians
| Rank | State | Population | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | 693,972 | 398 | 57% |
| 2 | Alaska | 739,795 | 287 | 39% |
| 3 | Nebraska | 1,920,076 | 683 | 36% |
| 4 | South Dakota | 869,666 | 313 | 36% |
| 5 | North Dakota | 755,393 | 263 | 35% |
| 6 | Utah | 3,101,833 | 984 | 32% |
| 7 | Washington | 7,405,743 | 2,313 | 31% |
| 8 | Rhode Island | 1,059,639 | 291 | 27% |
| 9 | Missouri | 6,113,532 | 1,575 | 26% |
| 10 | Arkansas | 3,004,279 | 787 | 26% |
| 11 | New Hampshire | 1,342,795 | 348 | 26% |
| 12 | Wyoming | 579,315 | 151 | 26% |
| 13 | Minnesota | 5,576,606 | 1,401 | 25% |
| 14 | Oregon | 4,142,776 | 1,036 | 25% |
| 15 | Montana | 1,050,493 | 265 | 25% |
| 16 | Georgia | 10,429,379 | 2,518 | 24% |
| 17 | Iowa | 3,145,711 | 764 | 24% |
| 18 | Idaho | 1,716,943 | 410 | 24% |
| 19 | Hawaii | 1,427,538 | 348 | 24% |
| 20 | Alabama | 4,874,747 | 1,104 | 23% |
Most common cities for operations support technicians
| Rank | City | # of jobs | Employment/ 1000ppl | Avg. salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Springfield | 2 | 7% | $42,170 |
| 2 | Columbia | 4 | 3% | $30,751 |
| 3 | Harrisburg | 1 | 2% | $35,760 |
| 4 | Sanford | 1 | 2% | $28,680 |
| 5 | Birmingham | 2 | 1% | $33,709 |
| 6 | Largo | 1 | 1% | $28,665 |
| 7 | Little Rock | 1 | 1% | $30,713 |
| 8 | Midland | 1 | 1% | $36,986 |
| 9 | Sunnyvale | 1 | 1% | $50,140 |
| 10 | Baltimore | 1 | 0% | $42,451 |
| 11 | Chicago | 1 | 0% | $35,562 |
| 12 | Columbus | 1 | 0% | $41,177 |
| 13 | New York | 1 | 0% | $49,169 |
| 14 | Saint Louis | 1 | 0% | $30,822 |
| 15 | Saint Petersburg | 1 | 0% | $28,600 |
Operations Support Technician job outlook: Expert opinions
Our panel of operations support technician experts
Texas A&M University San Antonio
American University
SUNY Oswego
Rowan University
Arizona State University
California Northstate University
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Grand Valley State University
Tiffin University
California State University - Long Beach
Dominican University
New York Institute of Technology
University of Illinois
Western Kentucky University
Robert Vinaja Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Computer Information SystemsTexas A&M University San Antonio
Computer Information Systems Department
What skills stand out on Operations Support Technician resumes?
Robert Vinaja Ph.D.: The skills that stand out will depend on the job position you apply for. I do not think there is a set of universal skills that will stand out for any job. Instead, your resume skills must match the expected requirements for a specific job.
What soft skills should all Operations Support Technicians possess?
Robert Vinaja Ph.D.: -Ability to work as part of a team.
-Attention to detail.
-Problem-solving and analytical skills.
Anthony Baron
Teaching Assistant, Associate Software EngineerAmerican University
What soft skills should all Operations Support Technicians possess?
Anthony Baron: The main soft skills I would say are needed for Computer Science software engineering are patience, perseverance, creativity, respect, teamwork, and openness to learning and teaching. Programming involves a lot of trial and error, researching, and learning better techniques for solving a problem. Due to this, patience and perseverance to reach the final goal in mind are crucial. When it comes to the learning aspect, there are many languages, frameworks, and libraries, and working with them involves a steeper learning curve than others. On top of this, there are often more elegant ways to program a solution, and many new frameworks and libraries are released throughout the industry. This is where patience and perseverance is also a virtue. Lastly, programming and creating a product are often done in teams, where working together and learning from each other is important.
What skills will help Operations Support Technicians earn the most?
Anthony Baron: By earning, do you mean financially, career-wise, or most growth? Career-wise, it really depends on what the final goal is. For web developers, learning the programming languages and frameworks for web development would be the way to go. In general, any experience with programming and knowing a little about a lot will be helpful. Having top-level theory knowledge (some but not in-depth) is also very helpful. It will help you better understand what is happening under the hood and determine which methods are more efficient than others. Financially, it really depends on what skills are most in-demand today. Also, getting a Masters opens doors to more job opportunities, and in some companies, allows for a pay increase. However, this is not the case everywhere.
What general advice would you give to an Operations Support Technician?
Mario Bkassiny Ph.D.: Young graduates should continuously seek every learning opportunity to enhance their professional skills. With the fast growth of engineering technology, it is important for engineers to remain up to date with the most recent innovations in their fields. The learning process does not stop at graduation, but instead, it extends beyond college to the workplace where engineers can gain expert knowledge in their fields.
What's a good job out of college for Operations Support Technicians?
Patricia Coughlan: Communication majors are posed for success in the current job market. The nature of the discipline focuses on understanding and executing effective messaging to diverse audiences, in varied contexts, and communication modes (traditional such as writing and new tech platforms such as social media). The ability to understand verbal, non-verbal and written communication positions a Communication major as ready to impact the needs of employers and their clientele in a variety of fields. Because of the broad nature of a Communication Studies degree, graduates have greater flexibility for their career paths and ultimately their earning potential. Typically, Communication majors have the ability to complete courses in strategic, interpersonal, organizational, political, business, health, leadership, small group, family, and intercultural communication. Having a large swath of these courses broadens a student's portfolio.
Moreover, Communication majors are trained to consider ethical issues, rhetorical arguments, diversity, the power of persuasion, social influence, and to conduct research. In today's climate their strengths in mass media and digital communities are in demand. Communication graduates are easily employed as assistants and leaders in Public Relations, Human Resources, Advertising, Politics, Marketing, Event Planning, Social Media, Healthcare, Jurisprudence, plus more. It is impossible to think of a field that does not have the need for effective communication. My advice to my students on how to increase their earning potential begins early when they are freshman - recognize that every company and person has a need to effectively tell their story and your major suits you to help them do just that!
Hemanth Kumar Demakethepalli Venkateswara Ph.D.
Assistant Research ProfessorArizona State University
School of Computing Informatics
What will help Operations Support Technicians increase their earning potential?
Hemanth Kumar Demakethepalli Venkateswara Ph.D.: Technology is always rapidly changing. A tried and tested approach to improve professionally is by updating oneself through a process of life-long learning. For example, in the AI field, a researcher updates themselves by attending top-tier AI conferences, reading the latest publications from top-tier conferences, re-implementing the results published in a paper, testing out new libraries that are published, and attempting to generate new ideas. A similar approach can be applied to other areas as well.
Deepak Khazanchi Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Community Engagement & Internationalization Officer, Professor of Information Systems & Quantitative Analysis, Director, Executive Master’s of Science in Information Technology (EMIT) Program, Executive Director, Center for Management of IT (CMIT), Fulbright Grantee (Specialist 2014; Core 2020-21)University of Nebraska at Omaha
College of Information Science & Technology
What's a good job out of college for Operations Support Technicians?
Deepak Khazanchi Ph.D.: I think the "best" and "interesting" jobs in my view will be those that leverage emerging technical skills such as AI/ML, data analytics, cybersecurity and medical informatics, with the nontechnical capabilities mentioned above.
What technical skills for an Operations Support Technician stand out to employers?
Chirag Parikh Ph.D.: If you ask me, I consider valuable experience over good paycheck. Once you have gained that experience the paycheck will follow. As soon as you are out of college, the knowledge gained is very fresh and raring to go. If put into the right place can enhance your technical skills and you can do wonders.
As a Computer Engineering professor, I would say the job opportunities are tremendous for students out of college as they can venture into hardware field (technical support, hardware engineer, test engineer and much more) as well as software field (software engineer, software developer, software tester and much more). The possibilities are endless.
With COVID and employees working remotely there is still ample opportunity to enhance your technical and interpersonal skills as I believe remote working might stay for a while till things get back to normal.
What's a good job out of college for Operations Support Technicians?
Chirag Parikh Ph.D.: It is given that technical skills are required as you enter the job market. In the area of Computer Engineering, I feel that graduates should have a breadth of knowledge in most areas of computer engineering and a greater depth of knowledge in at least one area. Programming skills are of utmost importance, as you might not know every possible programming language or its syntax but the basic understanding of programming logic is necessary.
I personally value debugging skills as a must to have as having this makes you a well-rounded engineer no matter what area of engineering you belong to. Next in my list is technical writing and verbal communication skill. Most of the engineers are known to underperform in this skill. I value this skill, as employers would want their engineers to be able to create technical documents as well as present their design to other co-workers and sometimes to other stakeholders.
The last skill I feel that employers would like their employees to have would be to work in a multidisciplinary environment with co-workers from different branches of engineering and other backgrounds.
What type of skills will young Operations Support Technicians need?
George Miller: Many organizations realize graduates cannot learn everything in college about their major but want the graduate to have a solid foundation on their field of study. The organization wants to mold the graduate to their company environment with how they do things related to the field of study. Most companies want college graduates to have good communication skills (both oral and written), critical thinking skills and be able to work well in teams. These skills have been a staple for graduates since I can remember. This is why a college graduate takes many general education courses related to these skills and many of their major courses emphasize these skills.
Going back to the previous answer I believe graduates in all fields of study will need a better knowledge of technology and easier adaptability to changing technology. Again, an IS degree is already preparing students for this.
What general advice would you give to an Operations Support Technician?
Dr. Lesley Farmer: Get to know the site before interviewing, and remember that even interviews are an opportunity to practice communication skills-and to see if there's a good match between you and the site. Once hired, learn about the organizational culture and develop trustful relationships. Make one memorable contribution the first month, but focus on becoming an expert before changing others. In addition, join a local and national professional association to keep current and network.
What are the biggest trends we'll see in the Operations Support Technician job market given the pandemic?
Dr. Lesley Farmer: Many employees have trouble pivoting to online work so in the short term, tech support and instructional design jobs are in high demand. Data privacy and security are also hot topics and need ed tech expertise. Tech maintenance, including cloud services and networks, continue to be needed, rather like car maintenance. Thinking forward, software development is another area of need, particularly with more online-based education. If grads have data analytics expertise, they can find jobs on data management and learning analytics.
Disabilities continue to be an issue, particularly in terms of equity, so jobs dealing with assistive technology and other ed tech supports are possible. Finally, grads should broaden their concept of educational settings; informal education is more important than ever: in business/HR, libraries and museums, recreational and youth-serving clubs, mass media, government and non-profit agencies. All of these entities are involved in training, outreach, PR, and public awareness/education. Be creative and persistent.
What Operations Support Technician skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Dr. Lesley Farmer: Internships are probably the best option, even if unpaid. Some institutions provide career placement services, and grads could contact their instructors about possible options. Companies, professional associations, and non-profits also advertise internships.
What are the biggest trends we'll see in the Operations Support Technician job market given the pandemic?
Kate Marek Ph.D.: Probably an acceleration of existing trends - remote working, skill-set based job openings (rather than degree-specific), along with an ongoing need for necessary skills such as writing, problem-solving, collaboration, and project management.
What Operations Support Technician skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?
Kate Marek Ph.D.: If possible, find a paid internship in your area of interest, which will help expand your professional network and build your skillset. Use this time to keep scanning job ads to identify skill sets in demand; look for online mini-courses to make those skill sets.
What general advice would you give to an Operations Support Technician?
Kate Marek Ph.D.: Choose an organization in tune with one's values. Look for a job in growth areas, such as data asset management, data analysis, etc.
What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for Operations Support Technicians in the next 3-5 years?
Babak Beheshti Ph.D.: -The enormous growth of IoT and wearables. The number of connected devices is expected to be more than 26 billion in 2020. That includes things like household appliances, controllable lighting, and much more. This trend is likely to continue as it is expected to see the industry grow to 661 billion dollars by 2021.
-We will be witnessing a more widespread commercial deployment of 5G in 2020. With the implementation of the Standalone 5G devices based on the 3gpp release 16, we should be seeing the more robust mobile broadband deployment of 5G, wider availability of 5G smartphones, and a push towards an all 5G Network in select urban areas around the world.
-Significant growth in AI-based technologies, from face recognition and voice recognition to business intelligence and market predictions. As machines and deep learning algorithms get integrated into many applications, many industries will undergo substantial changes. AI systems will continue to interact with our phones; cars will interpret and analyze their surroundings and intelligently drive themselves. Online vendors will monitor our browsing habits, and Google decides what kind of search results to give us, based on who it thinks we are.
Will there be an enduring impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Operations Support Technicians?
Ranganathan Chandrasekaran: I expect companies, across the board, to 'go-digital' more than ever before. This pandemic has taught us that a lot can be achieved by clever use of technologies and by working remotely and virtually. The pandemic has also served as a wake-up call for several firms with outdated and inflexible technological infrastructures, weak cybersecurity, and poor business continuity plans. I see firms across many industries to digitize a lot of their processes and operations. With increased digitization, cybersecurity is going to be much more important. Tele-work, use of smart devices, and use of AI-driven operations is going to accelerate at a rapid pace. Many firms will be forced to undertake technology projects that they have been sidelining for a long time and swiftly execute them.
How do you envision technology impacting Operations Support Technicians in the next 5 years?
Kirk Atkinson: AI and machine learning are already impacting the field and will continue to empower change. Employees must be more ready than ever for life-long learning. This means more than formal education; it also includes self-learning, free and lost-cost, web-based learning, and a willingness to adapt to various roles. The ability to interpret the analysis of data and critical thinking will continue to be sought after skills!