Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians vs Automotive Service Technician

Two jobs, side by side on the figures the federal government publishes for them. This page compares; it does not recommend either one. What fits depends on you, and nothing here knows you.

The two jobs are listed alphabetically, which is not a ranking. Pay is the median annual wage for the whole United States. Each number is followed, in brackets, by its publisher and date.

The two jobs

Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians
Repair and maintenance
You inspect airframes and engines, follow FAA manuals, replace components, and sign off repairs so aircraft stay airworthy for the next flight.
Automotive Service Technician
Repair and maintenance
Diagnose and repair cars and light trucks, from routine maintenance to complex engine work.

Each name opens that job's own page, which adds the education people in the job hold and a note on licences.

Side by side

Every figure is shown as its publisher states it, in the same type, with nothing coloured or marked out. Where we hold no verified figure it says Provisional, never an estimate. Where the two jobs have nothing comparable in a row, the row stays and says so.

Median pay

Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians: $79,870 [CareerOneStop (BLS OEWS), United States, 2025]
Automotive Service Technician: $50,620 [CareerOneStop (BLS OEWS), United States, 2025]

Openings a year

Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians: 11,400 [BLS Employment Projections, United States, 2025–2035]
Automotive Service Technician: 66,200 [BLS Employment Projections, United States, 2025–2035]

Projected change in jobs, ten years

Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians: +5.4% [BLS Employment Projections, United States, 2025–2035]
Automotive Service Technician: +5% [BLS Employment Projections, United States, 2025–2035]

Typical way in, as BLS lists it

Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians: Postsecondary certificate · No work experience · No on-the-job training [CareerOneStop (BLS Employment Projections), retrieved 2026-09-28]
Automotive Service Technician: Postsecondary certificate · No work experience · Less than 1 month on-the-job training [CareerOneStop (BLS Employment Projections), retrieved 2026-09-28]

Registered apprenticeship title

Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians: Yes [O*NET RAPIDS crosswalk, U.S. Dept. of Labor/ETA, 2026-03]
Automotive Service Technician: Yes [O*NET RAPIDS crosswalk, U.S. Dept. of Labor/ETA, 2026-03]

Program cost

Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians: Provisional
Automotive Service Technician: Provisional

No honest per-career program cost yet, so we don't show one.

Verification required

Licences and credentials

Some of these jobs need a licence or a credential that varies by state, and the fields they sit in say what to check first. Each job's own page says it, and CareerOneStop's License Finder lists licensing requirements by state.

What this page cannot tell you

Every figure here is national. What either job pays where you live can sit well above or well below the median on this page, and nothing here tells you which.

An opening is a projection over ten years, not a vacancy you can apply to today, and a projection is a forecast that can be wrong. The typical way in describes how most people got there, not the only route and not a rule about you.

It does not say what training for either job costs, how long a particular program takes, whether a program near you has a place, or what happens to the people who finish one. We hold none of that, and we do not guess at it.

It does not say which job you would enjoy, be good at, or be able to start next month. Only you can say that, and the quiz is a way to start.

Where these numbers come from

Every figure on this page was published by someone other than us and is shown as published. Retrieved from the publisher on September 28, 2026: typical way in. The rest show the period they cover, not a retrieval date, and we state none for them: median pay, projected change in jobs over ten years, openings a year, registered apprenticeship titles.A figure we cannot source is marked Provisional, and one the publisher does not measure says so. Both appear on the page itself, not behind a tap.

Median pay CareerOneStop (BLS OEWS), 2025. About this source
Projected change in jobs over ten years BLS Employment Projections, 2025–2035. About this source
Openings a year BLS Employment Projections, 2025–2035. About this source
Typical way in CareerOneStop (BLS Employment Projections), retrieved 2026-09-28. About this source
Registered apprenticeship titles O*NET RAPIDS crosswalk, U.S. Dept. of Labor/ETA, 2026-03. About this source

The provisional flag and every publisher's terms are explained on Where our numbers come from.

Found something wrong? Email hello@highpathways.com and name the page and the figure. It goes to a person at HighPathways.

Wages, time-to-entry, education levels, state licensing and local training programs sourced via CareerOneStop (BLS OEWS; BLS Employment Projections; License Finder; Local Training Finder: NCES IPEDS and US DOL ETP/WIOA), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration and operated by the Minnesota Department of Employment & Economic Development. Shown as published.

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. HighPathways has modified some of this information: we shorten O*NET’s official occupation titles so they read the way people say them; USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. Pay and cost figures are sourced separately and listed on the Data sources page.

See which one fits you

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