Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2004

17-3031 Surveying and Mapping Technicians

Perform surveying and mapping duties, usually under the direction of a surveyor, cartographer, or photogrammetrist to obtain data used for construction, mapmaking, boundary location, mining, or other purposes. May calculate mapmaking information and create maps from source data, such as surveying notes, aerial photography, satellite data, or other maps to show topographical features, political boundaries, and other features. May verify accuracy and completeness of topographical maps. Exclude "Surveyors" (17-1022), "Cartographers and Photogrammetrists" (17-1021), and "Geoscientists, Except Hydrologists and Geographers" (19-2042).

Metropolitan areas with the highest concentration of workers in this occupation:

(1) Estimates for detailed occupations do not sum to the totals because the totals include occupations not shown separately. Estimates do not include self-employed workers.

(2) Annual wages have been calculated by multiplying the hourly mean wage by a "year-round, full-time" hours figure of 2,080 hours; for those occupations where there is not an hourly mean wage published, the annual wage has been directly calculated from the reported survey data.

(3) The relative standard error (RSE) is a measure of the reliability of a survey statistic. The smaller the relative standard error, the more precise the estimate.