Office and Administrative Support Occupations·SOC 43-2099

Best degree programs for Communications Equipment Operators, All Other, ranked by enrollment

1 college programs and 14 schools train Communications Equipment Operators, All Other. Compare graduates per year, cost and pay, $54,680 median wage, 1,200 U.S. jobs. Federal data.

1 college programs at 14 schools train communications equipment operators, all other, graduating 319 people a year (IPEDS completions). The largest is Communications Systems Installation and Repair Technology/Technician. The job pays a median of $54,680 (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Graduates / yr
319
from every feeder program
Median annual wage
$54,680
BLS OEWS May 2025
Projected growth
+2.5%
About as fast as average
Openings / yr
100
new plus replacement
Schools
14
with a feeder program
States with jobs
2
BLS reports wages

About communications equipment operators, all other

All communications equipment operators not listed separately.

Also calledOperatorReceiverRoute ClerkTelegrapherOil DispatcherRadio OperatorTelex OperatorRadio MaintainerRelay DispatcherService ObserverWireless WatcherRelay Telegrapher

Fields of study that lead to this job

Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level, the tier our program pages are built on. Numbers are graduates per year.

1 degree programs that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are College Scorecard figures for people who finished the program, reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. That is a different measurement from the occupation-wide wages further down this page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
1
CIP 47.0103
319
100.0%
14$37,415$9,500

Top 14 schools by graduates into this job

Counting every feeder program a school offers, not just its largest one.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad rateNet priceAcceptance
1Pinnacle Career Institute
Kansas City, MO Private for-profit · 1 feeder programs
151Communications Systems Installation and Repair Technology/Technician52%$22,015
2Fortis Institute - Wayne
Wayne, NJ Private for-profit · 1 feeder programs
48Communications Systems Installation and Repair Technology/Technician72%$23,607
3Perry Technical Institute
Yakima, WA Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs
47Communications Systems Installation and Repair Technology/Technician79%$24,069
4Des Moines Area Community College
Ankeny, IA Public · 1 feeder programs
13Communications Systems Installation and Repair Technology/Technician39%
5Fortis Institute - Lawrenceville
Lawrenceville, NJ Private for-profit · 1 feeder programs
13Communications Systems Installation and Repair Technology/Technician54%$19,420
6Ogden - Weber Technical College
Ogden, UT Public · 1 feeder programs
13Communications Systems Installation and Repair Technology/Technician53%
7Lake Land College
Mattoon, IL Public · 1 feeder programs
8Communications Systems Installation and Repair Technology/Technician58%
8Big Sandy Community and Technical College
Prestonsburg, KY Public · 1 feeder programs
6Communications Systems Installation and Repair Technology/Technician38%
9Emily Griffith Technical College
Denver, CO Public · 1 feeder programs
6Communications Systems Installation and Repair Technology/Technician97%
10Pinellas Technical College - Clearwater
Clearwater, FL Public · 1 feeder programs
5Communications Systems Installation and Repair Technology/Technician52%
11Quinsigamond Community College
Worcester, MA Public · 1 feeder programs
3Communications Systems Installation and Repair Technology/Technician22%
12Southeast Community College Area
Lincoln, NE Public · 1 feeder programs
3Communications Systems Installation and Repair Technology/Technician38%
13Westmoreland County Community College
Youngwood, PA Public · 1 feeder programs
2Communications Systems Installation and Repair Technology/Technician31%
14Wiregrass Georgia Technical College
Valdosta, GA Public · 1 feeder programs
1Communications Systems Installation and Repair Technology/Technician50%

What communications equipment operators, all other earn

What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.

Median annual wage
$54,680
Mean annual
$62,130
Median hourly
$26.29/hr
People employed
1,200
What the range looks like
10th pct$38,900Median$54,68090th pct$94,640

Top-paying metro areas

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
$60,630median
170 jobs
San Juan-Bayamon-Caguas, PR
$22,850median
180 jobs

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
+2.5%
About as fast as average
Openings per year
100
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
0
1,400 → 1,500
Typical entry education
High school diploma or equivalent
Plus short-term on-the-job training

Where the jobs are, state by state

Pick a state for in-state pay, the schools there, and the programs they run.

This occupation state by state: pay, jobs, and schools
StateMedian payJobsConcentrationSchoolsGraduates / yr
Missourilimited$87,030502.40×1151
Massachusettslimited$54,500401.47×13

Skills and tools

From O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupational database. Importance is a 1 to 5 scale.

How to get in

How to become a Communications Equipment Operator, All Other

Typical entry education
High school diploma or equivalent
On-the-job training
Short-term on-the-job training

Every major mapped to this job

The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.

All 1 majors mapped to Communications Equipment Operators, All Other1 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
  • 47.0103Communications Systems Installation and Repair Technology/Technician

Common questions

What degree do you need to become a Communications Equipment Operator, All Other?+

High school diploma or equivalent is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Communications Systems Installation and Repair Technology/Technician, which awarded 319 degrees in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.

Which college majors lead to becoming a Communications Equipment Operator, All Other?+

The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Electrical/Electronics Maintenance and Repair Technologies/Technicians. Together they graduate about 319 people a year.

How much do communications equipment operators, all other earn?+

The median is $54,680 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). The middle range runs from $38,900 at the 10th percentile to $94,640 at the 90th. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.

Is demand for communications equipment operators, all other growing?+

BLS projects a +2.5% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, about as fast as average, with roughly 100 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.

How many schools offer programs for this career?+

14 institutions reported graduates from at least one of the 1 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.

Do you need training or experience beyond a degree?+

BLS lists 'None' for related work experience and 'Short-term on-the-job training' for on-the-job training typically needed to reach competency.

Communications Equipment Operators, All Other by stateMissouriMassachusetts

About the data on this page

Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024-25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).

  • BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics

    May 2025

    Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.

  • BLS Employment Projections

    2024–34

    Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.

  • IPEDS Completions

    2024-25 (provisional)

    Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.

  • College Scorecard, Field of Study

    2020-21 cohorts

    Median graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.

  • Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes

    latest available

    Graduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.

  • NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk

    CIP 2020 / SOC 2018

    Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.

  • O*NET Database 30.3

    30.3

    Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.

    Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA

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