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Medical Appliance Technicians vs Surgical Technologists

Side-by-side · O*NET · BLS · AI-exposure research · Anthropic Economic Index

A factual, source-backed comparison of Medical Appliance Technicians and Surgical Technologists on the dimensions both occupations carry. Every figure is a position within an independent published dataset — not a verdict on which job is better, safer, or more “future-proof.”

Medical Appliance Technicians Surgical Technologists
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$47,060
$62,830
Employment · BLS OEWS
11,490
113,890
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
7th pct
5th pct

At a glance

Dimension Medical Appliance Technicians Surgical Technologists
Median pay $47,060 $62,830
Employment 11,490 113,890
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+3.7%) About average (+4.5%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 1,500 7,000
Typical education · O*NET Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree. Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
AI exposure · published exposure studies Low · 7th pct Low · 5th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 27th pct · 18% of tasks —
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — —
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman No No

Pay and employment are BLS OEWS estimates; outlook and openings are BLS 2024–2034 projections; AI exposure and observed-use figures come from separate research and reflect exposure and usage, not predictions that either job will disappear. Compare like with like.

Skills

Shared: Active Listening, Oral Comprehension, Problem Sensitivity, Near Vision, Critical Thinking, Oral Expression, Deductive Reasoning, Arm-Hand Steadiness, Customer and Personal Service, Reading Comprehension, Speaking, Information Ordering, Social Perceptiveness, Operations Monitoring, Inductive Reasoning, Manual Dexterity, Speech Recognition, Speech Clarity, English Language, Complex Problem Solving, Monitoring, Judgment and Decision Making, Written Comprehension, Service Orientation, Education and Training, Active Learning, Coordination, Instructing, Equipment Maintenance.

Specific to Medical Appliance Technicians

  • Production and Processing
  • Quality Control Analysis
  • Visualization
  • Troubleshooting
  • Finger Dexterity
  • Mechanical
  • Control Precision
  • Multilimb Coordination

Specific to Surgical Technologists

  • Medicine and Dentistry
  • Selective Attention
  • Perceptual Speed
  • Time Management
  • Number Facility
  • Flexibility of Closure
  • Visual Color Discrimination
  • Learning Strategies

Knowledge, skills & abilities O*NET rates as important for each occupation. “Shared” are common to both; the columns list what is distinctive to each (top by the order O*NET surfaces).

Tools & technology

Shared: Spreadsheet software , Office suite software , Electronic mail software , Word processing software , Medical software .

Specific to Medical Appliance Technicians

Specific to Surgical Technologists

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Medical Appliance Technicians or Surgical Technologists — tasks, the full skill graph, tools, work context, preparation, wages by percentile, industries, AI exposure and the AI work map.

More comparisons

Related occupations you can place side by side on the same sourced scale.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Medical Appliance Technicians vs Surgical Technologists." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/compare/medical-appliance-technicians-vs-surgical-technologists

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Medical Appliance Technicians vs Surgical Technologists. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/medical-appliance-technicians-vs-surgical-technologists

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-medical-appliance-technicians-vs-surgical-technologists,
  title  = {Medical Appliance Technicians vs Surgical Technologists},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/compare/medical-appliance-technicians-vs-surgical-technologists}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.