Skip to content
TryHired.
Role hub · Court Reporters and Simultaneous Captioners

Court Reporter: what the job is, what it pays, and how to get hired.

The work, the skills that matter, the tools in demand and the pay range, from U.S. government data, plus every TryHired page for the role.

Maid DizdarevicCareer coach · 8x LinkedIn Top Voice
Updated Nov 2, 2026 · Data: BLS OEWS May 2025 · O*NET 31.0
Pay ladder · select a percentile
Median percentile pay

Half of court reporters earn more than this and half earn less.

Annual
$72,420
Hourly
$34.82
Source
BLS May 2025
Quick answer

Court Reporters use verbatim methods and equipment to capture, store, retrieve, and transcribe pretrial and trial proceedings or other information. The median pay is $72,420 a year ($34.82 an hour) (BLS, May 2025).

Median pay
$72,420
BLS May 2025
Employed in the U.S.
12,870
BLS May 2025
Preparation
Job Zone 3 of 5
medium preparation

Data Government data groups this job as Court Reporters and Simultaneous Captioners (O*NET-SOC 27-3092.00). Figures on this page are for that occupation.

Key facts

Court Reporters at a glance

  • Court reporters and simultaneous captioners in the United States earned a median annual wage of $72,420 in May 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025

  • In its 2025–35 employment projections, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a postsecondary nondegree award as the typical entry-level education for court reporters and simultaneous captioners in the United States.

    Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35

  • BLS projects employment of court reporters and simultaneous captioners in the United States to decline 0.1% from 2025 to 2035, with about 1,800 openings a year on average, including replacement openings.

    Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35

  • BLS estimated that 12,870 people were employed as court reporters and simultaneous captioners in the United States in May 2025, not counting the self-employed.

    Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025

Explore the role

Every page for Court Reporters

SalaryCourt Reporter salary

Pay by percentile, state and metro, with a negotiation script.

Open →Free toolCheck your resume

Parsed text, evidence per bullet, fixes first.

Open →
The work

What court reporters do day to day

Data Core tasks rated most important by workers in the role (O*NET).

  1. Provide transcripts of proceedings upon request of judges, lawyers, or the public.
  2. Record symbols on computer storage media and use computer aided transcription to translate and display them as text.
  3. Record verbatim proceedings of courts, legislative assemblies, committee meetings, and other proceedings, using computerized recording equipment, electronic stenograph machines, or stenomasks.
  4. Record depositions and other proceedings for attorneys.
  5. Ask speakers to clarify inaudible statements.
  6. Proofread transcripts for correct spelling of words.
  7. File a legible transcript of records of a court case with the court clerk's office.
  8. Transcribe recorded proceedings in accordance with established formats.
Where this career works

Industries that employ it

Data Share of all court reporter jobs in each industry, 2025 (BLS Employment Matrix).

  1. Government, excluding state and local education and hospitals44.8% of all jobs in this occupation · +3.0% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $84,950
  2. Administrative and support services19.4% of all jobs in this occupation · -4.5% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $66,400
  3. Motion picture and sound recording industries1.0% of all jobs in this occupation · -3.3% projected change here 2025–35
  4. Educational services; state, local, and private0.7% of all jobs in this occupation · -8.3% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $66,470
  5. Professional, scientific, and technical services0.4% of all jobs in this occupation · -5.0% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $89,450

Sources: BLS 2025–35 National Employment Matrix (share of the occupation's jobs, projected change) and BLS OEWS May 2025 industry estimates (mean wage). Different industry estimates are not a pay forecast for any person.

Skills that matter

Ranked by importance to the job

Data O*NET importance ratings. The first three are core.

Active ListeningcoreWritingcoreReading ComprehensioncoreSpeakingMonitoringTime ManagementCritical ThinkingSocial PerceptivenessQuality Control Analysis

Knowledge areas: English Language, Computers and Electronics, Administrative, Law and Government, Customer and Personal Service.

Tools and technology

Software court reporters use

Data Examples reported for the role; employer demand flags from O*NET.

  • Courtroom Data Solutions TechlenniumVoice recognition software
  • Equative TimeLedgerTime accounting software
  • Nuance Dragon NaturallySpeakingVoice recognition software
  • Microsoft Office softwareOffice suite softwareIn demand
  • Microsoft ExcelSpreadsheet softwareHot technology
  • Microsoft OutlookElectronic mail softwareHot technology
  • Microsoft WordWord processing softwareHot technology
  • Acclaim Legal Acclaim DepoManageData base user interface and query software
  • Acculaw Court Reporters Billing Scheduling Job Management System ABSMSEnterprise resource planning ERP software
  • Advantage Software Total EclipseWord processing software
  • AudioScribe SpeechCATWord processing software
  • Chase Software Solutions Court Reporting SoftwareData base user interface and query software

Also called: Captioner, Certified Shorthand Reporter (CSR), Court Recorder, Court Stenographer, Deposition Reporter.

Method

How this page is built

Tasks, skills, tools, education and related roles come from O*NET 31.0. Pay and employment come from the BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates. The skill-match score is our calculation: Skill match is the cosine similarity of the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level and subtract the average across all occupations, then compare the direction of the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 means unrelated or opposite (negative values are shown as 0). Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared.

What this page can't tell you
  • How a specific employer defines the job.
  • Pay for self-employed workers (OEWS covers employees).
  • Your own chances: data describes the occupation, not you.
Sources
  1. O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).

How TryHired builds this data: sources, methods and downloads. Spotted an error? Report a correction.