Court Reporters and Simultaneous Captioners

Median salary

$72,420

Average salary

$78,760

Employment

12,870

Projected growth

0.3% decline

Annual openings

1,700

Typical entry education

Postsecondary nondegree award

What Court Reporters and Simultaneous Captioners Do

Use verbatim methods and equipment to capture, store, retrieve, and transcribe pretrial and trial proceedings or other information. Includes stenocaptioners who operate computerized stenographic captioning equipment to provide captions of live or prerecorded broadcasts for hearing-impaired viewers.

See full salary breakdown & percentiles →

Career Outlook

National employment outlook, 2024–2034.

Related work experience: None
On-the-job training: Short-term on-the-job training
Self-employed: 25.6%

Source: BLS Employment Projections — 2024-2034.

How Much Preparation Does This Take?

Job Zone 3 of 5

Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed

Experience: Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations.
Education: Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
Job training: Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Source: O*NET Job Zones.

Key Knowledge Areas

Subject-matter areas this occupation draws on most, per O*NET.

English Languageimportance 4.8/5
Administrativeimportance 4.6/5
Computers and Electronicsimportance 4.1/5
Law and Governmentimportance 3.9/5
Customer and Personal Serviceimportance 3.5/5
Administration and Managementimportance 3.1/5
Communications and Mediaimportance 3.0/5
Public Safety and Securityimportance 2.6/5

Work Environment

What the day-to-day work setting is like, per O*NET.

Importance of Being Exact or Accurate5.0/5
Indoors, Environmentally Controlled4.8/5
Contact With Others4.8/5
Face-to-Face Discussions with Individuals and Within Teams4.8/5
Spend Time Sitting4.8/5
E-Mail4.6/5

Careers With Similar Skills

Occupations whose Transferable Skills profile most closely matches this one — a mathematical comparison, not observed data about people actually moving between these careers.

Packers and Packagers, Hand91% skill match
Funeral Attendants87% skill match
Mail Clerks and Mail Machine Operators, Except Postal Service87% skill match
Couriers and Messengers87% skill match
Cutters and Trimmers, Hand86% skill match
Bus Drivers, School86% skill match
Graders and Sorters, Agricultural Products85% skill match
Slaughterers and Meat Packers85% skill match

Transferable Skills

Cross-functional skills this occupation draws on most, per O*NET — the kind that carry over to other careers.

Time Managementimportance 3.0/5
Social Perceptivenessimportance 2.6/5
Complex Problem Solvingimportance 2.1/5
Quality Control Analysisimportance 2.1/5
Coordinationimportance 2.0/5
Judgment and Decision Makingimportance 2.0/5
Service Orientationimportance 1.9/5
Operations Monitoringimportance 1.9/5

Software & Technologies

Tools and software used in this occupation, per O*NET.

Hot Technologies

Other Software Used

Acclaim Legal Acclaim DepoManage
Acculaw Court Reporters Billing Scheduling Job Management System ABSMS
Advantage Software Total Eclipse
AudioScribe SpeechCAT
Chase Software Solutions Court Reporting Software
Cheetah International SmartCAT
Corel WordPerfect Office Suite
Courtpages

Work Style

Personal work characteristics that matter most for this occupation, per O*NET.

Attention to Detail
Dependability
Integrity
Self-Control
Cautiousness
Stress Tolerance
Perseverance

Career Interests

This occupation’s RIASEC interest profile, per O*NET — how strongly it fits each of the six Holland interest types.

ConventionalHigh
ArtisticLow
SocialLow
EnterprisingLow
RealisticLow
InvestigativeLow

This page includes information from the O*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.

Where This Career Is Most Concentrated

Metro areas where court reporters and simultaneous captioners make up the largest share of local employment, relative to the national average (BLS location quotient).