# Computer User Support Specialists

US SOC code 15-1232. Markdown version of https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/15-1232

Also called: Help desk specialist, IT support specialist, Technical support specialist, Desktop support specialist, End user support specialist.

## In brief

In May 2025, [BLS](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip) counted **717,190** US computer user support specialists, with median pay of **$61,860** a year. Of the BLS counts since 2021, the May 2025 count is the highest. The earliest figure here is [an estimate](https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2016/acs/acs-35.html) of **125,000** from 1990, not measured the same way as today's count. The last full technology era for computer user support specialists: Cloud ITSM platforms + mobile + ChatOps, 2010 to 2020. Cloud ITSM and ChatOps made support faster but expanded scope: every mobile device, every cloud application, and every remote worker added tickets.

## What the sources say

### Official outlook

BLS projects employment to decline 3.5% from 2025 to 2035. Source: [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=15-1232&ioType=o).

### AI exposure studies

- **66.7%** of this job's tasks are exposed to large language models. Not a forecast of job losses. [Eloundou and others, 2023](https://github.com/openai/GPTs-are-GPTs/blob/main/data/occ_level.csv)

Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35. BLS publishes these counts as yearly survey snapshots and cautions against reading them as a precise trend.

## Computer User Support Specialists employment and pay by year

- On record since: 1981
- Latest US employment: 717,190 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [3]
- Latest US median pay: $61,860 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [9]
- Outlook: -3.5% by 2035. Source: BLS Employment Projections 2025-35 [27]

### In other countries

The latest figure each country's statistics agency publishes for this job. Each uses its own occupation definition, survey basis and currency, so the numbers are not directly comparable with each other or with the US figures.

- **Canada** (NOC 22221)
  - Employment, 2020: 61,155. Source: Statistics Canada Census 2021 [6]. Statistics Canada Census of Population 2021: number of persons with employment income in NOC 22221 User support technicians, Canada, reference year 2020. A recipients basis (anyone with employment income during the year), slightly broader than a point-in-time employed count. Statistics Canada Open Licence.
  - Median pay, 2020: C$63,200. Source: Statistics Canada Census 2021 [13]. Statistics Canada Census of Population 2021 (Table 98-10-0586): median employment income for NOC 22221 User support technicians, Canada, reference year 2020, full-year full-time workers (the basis comparable to the US OEWS full-time median). Statistics Canada Open Licence.
- **United Kingdom** (UK SOC 3132)
  - Employment, 2025: 152,000. Source: ONS ASHE 2025 [7]. ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Table 14): employee jobs in SOC 3132 IT user support technicians, United Kingdom, 2025 (ASHE "number of jobs", thousands x1000; excludes self-employment). Open Government Licence v3.0.
  - Median pay, 2025: £34,314. Source: ONS ASHE 2025 [14]. ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Table 14.7a): median gross annual pay for all employee jobs in SOC 3132 IT user support technicians, United Kingdom, 2025. Open Government Licence v3.0.
- **Australia** (ANZSCO 3131)
  - Employment, 2025: 74,000. Source: ABS Labour Force Survey [8]. ABS Labour Force Survey (Detailed), table EQ08: employed persons in ANZSCO 3131 ICT Support Technicians, national (summed across sex and state/territory), annual average of 4 quarterly estimates.
  - Median pay, 2025: A$87,724. Source: ABS Employee Earnings May 2025 [15]. Annualised (x52) from A$1,687 median weekly earnings. ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025: median pay for full-time non-managerial employees paid at the adult rate, before tax. Surfaced via the Jobs and Skills Australia occupation profile.

### All 9 years of cited US data

| Year | US employment | Annual pay (median unless marked) | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1990 | 125,000 (estimate) | n/a | Est., US Census Bureau [1] |
| 2000 | 565,000 (estimate) | n/a | Est., BLS Career Outlook 2001 [2] |
| 2019 | 647,330 | $52,270 | BLS OEWS May 2019 [3] |
| 2020 | 634,820 | $52,690 | BLS OEWS May 2020 [3] |
| 2021 | 654,310 | $49,770 | BLS OEWS May 2021 [3] |
| 2022 | 696,830 | $57,890 | BLS OEWS May 2022 [3] |
| 2023 | 689,700 | $59,240 | BLS OEWS May 2023 [3] |
| 2024 | 697,210 | $60,340 | BLS OEWS May 2024 [3] |
| 2025 | 717,190 | $61,860 | BLS OEWS May 2025 [3] |

## Sources (74)

### Employment series

1. [US Census Bureau -- "Occupations in Information Technology" (ACS-35, 2016) — IT workforce 450K in 1970 to 4.6M in 2014](https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2016/acs/acs-35.html), US Census Bureau
2. [BLS Career Outlook 2001 -- "Computer support specialists" (Spring 2001, employment and growth data)](https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2001/spring/art02.pdf), Bureau of Labor Statistics
3. BLS OEWS, national cross-industry estimates (flat file), Bureau of Labor Statistics. Editions: [2019](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm19nat.zip), [2020](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm20nat.zip), [2021](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm21nat.zip), [2022](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm22nat.zip), [2023](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm23nat.zip), [2024](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm24nat.zip), [2025](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip)
4. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2006, Table 97-563-XCB2006069 (Wage and salary statistics by occupation, NOC-S 2006), income reference year 2005](https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/tbt/Rp-eng.cfm?LANG=E&PID=96285), Statistics Canada
5. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2016, Table 98-400-X2016356 (Occupation by employment income statistics, NOC 2016), income reference year 2015](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/98-400-X2016356), Statistics Canada
6. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2021, Table 98-10-0586 (Employment income statistics by occupation unit group, NOC 2021), income reference year 2020](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=9810058601), Statistics Canada
7. ONS: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14.7a (Annual pay - Gross), 4-digit SOC 3132, United Kingdom. Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0., Office for National Statistics. Editions: [2002](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2002/2002-table-14.zip), [2006](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2006consistentw_007methodology/2006-table-14.zip), [2010](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2010revised/2010-revised-table-14.zip), [2011](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2011revisedbasedonsoc2010/2011-revised-table-14.zip), [2015](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2015/table142015revised.zip), [2020](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2020revised/table142020revised.zip), [2022](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2022revised/ashetable142022revised.zip), [2025](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2025provisional/ashetable142025provisional.zip)
8. [ABS: Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, table EQ08 (Employed persons by Occupation unit group, ANZSCO 2013), latest release](https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia-detailed/latest-release), Australian Bureau of Statistics

### Wage series

9. BLS OEWS, national cross-industry estimates (flat file), Bureau of Labor Statistics. Editions: [2019](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm19nat.zip), [2020](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm20nat.zip), [2021](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm21nat.zip), [2022](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm22nat.zip), [2023](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm23nat.zip), [2025](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip)
10. [BLS OEWS May 2024, national cross-industry estimates (flat file)](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm24nat.zip), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
11. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2006, Table 97-563-XCB2006069 (Wage and salary statistics by occupation, NOC-S 2006), income reference year 2005](https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/tbt/Rp-eng.cfm?LANG=E&PID=96285), Statistics Canada
12. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2016, Table 98-400-X2016356 (Occupation by employment income statistics, NOC 2016), income reference year 2015](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/98-400-X2016356), Statistics Canada
13. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2021, Table 98-10-0586 (Employment income statistics by occupation unit group, NOC 2021), income reference year 2020](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=9810058601), Statistics Canada
14. ONS: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14.7a (Annual pay - Gross), 4-digit SOC 3132, United Kingdom. Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0., Office for National Statistics. Editions: [2002](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2002/2002-table-14.zip), [2006](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2006consistentw_007methodology/2006-table-14.zip), [2010](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2010revised/2010-revised-table-14.zip), [2011](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2011revisedbasedonsoc2010/2011-revised-table-14.zip), [2015](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2015/table142015revised.zip), [2020](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2020revised/table142020revised.zip), [2022](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2022revised/ashetable142022revised.zip), [2025](https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14/2025provisional/ashetable142025provisional.zip)
15. [Jobs and Skills Australia: ICT Support Technicians (ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025)](https://www.jobsandskills.gov.au/data/occupation-and-industry-profiles/occupations/3131-ict-support-technicians), Jobs and Skills Australia / Australian Bureau of Statistics

### Tool eras

16. [IBM -- "The IBM Personal Computer" (official history, August 12, 1981 launch)](https://www.ibm.com/history/personal-computer), IBM
17. [Crowd Canyon -- "The History of the Help Desk: From Rotary Phones to AI Automation" (IBM coined "help desk" in the 1980s)](https://www.crowcanyon.com/blog/the-history-of-the-help-desk-from-rotary-phones-to-ai-automation/), Crow Canyon Software
18. [Wikipedia -- ITIL (history: CCTA 1989, re-named from GITMM)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITIL), Wikipedia
19. [Remedy Corporation History -- FundingUniverse (founded November 1990, Action Request System released late 1991, $6,500 starting price)](https://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/remedy-corporation-history/), FundingUniverse
20. [CompTIA -- "CompTIA A+ Certification Marks 20th Anniversary" (PRNewswire, 2013)](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/comptia-a-certification-marks-20th-anniversary-199348691.html), CompTIA
21. [SelfGrowth.com -- "The History of the CompTIA A+ Certification" (1993 launch, Windows 3.1 era content)](https://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/the-history-of-the-comptia-a-certification), SelfGrowth
22. [TOPdesk -- "A brief history of IT help desks" (2000s: live chat, remote support, cloud era)](https://www.topdesk.com/en/blog/history-help-desk/), TOPdesk
23. [SysAid -- "The 30-Year Evolution of the IT Help Desk" (2010s: automation, mobile, ChatOps era)](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/the-30-year-evolution-of-the-it-help-desk-and-where-its-going-next), SysAid
24. [ServiceNow -- Autonomous Workforce: L1 Service Desk AI Specialist resolves 90%+ of targeted L1 volume (launched February 2026)](https://newsroom.servicenow.com/press-releases/details/2026/ServiceNow-launches-Autonomous-Workforce-that-thinks-and-acts-adds-Moveworks-to-the-ServiceNow-AI-Platform/default.aspx), ServiceNow
25. [Freshworks -- Freshservice Freddy AI: 66% ticket deflection rate (UserEvidence survey, 2026)](https://www.freshworks.com/freshservice/ai-itsm/), Freshworks
26. [Microsoft Inside Track -- Employee Self-Service Agent: 50%+ of support interactions handled autonomously in Europe North (May 2026)](https://www.microsoft.com/insidetrack/blog/transforming-it-support-across-microsoft-with-the-employee-self-service-agent/), Microsoft

### Forecasts and exposure studies

27. [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35, National Employment Matrix: 15-1232 Computer user support specialists (2025: 750.6 thousand; 2035: 724.4 thousand; -3.5%)](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=15-1232&ioType=o), Bureau of Labor Statistics
28. [Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), "GPTs are GPTs", occupation-level exposure data occ\_level.csv (O\*NET-SOC 15-1232.00, human-rated β 0.667)](https://github.com/openai/GPTs-are-GPTs/blob/main/data/occ_level.csv), OpenAI

### Historical notes

29. [IBM -- "The IBM Personal Computer" (official history, August 12, 1981)](https://www.ibm.com/history/personal-computer), IBM
30. [Wikipedia -- ITIL (history: CCTA published first edition 1989, derived from GITMM)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITIL), Wikipedia
31. [Remedy Corporation History -- FundingUniverse (founded November 1990, ARS released late 1991)](https://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/remedy-corporation-history/), FundingUniverse
32. [CompTIA -- "CompTIA A+ Certification Marks 20th Anniversary" (PRNewswire, 2013)](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/comptia-a-certification-marks-20th-anniversary-199348691.html), CompTIA
33. [BLS -- "Historical comparability of occupation and industry data from the CPS" (2000 SOC revision documentation)](https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsoccind.htm), Bureau of Labor Statistics
34. [SysAid -- "The 30-Year Evolution of the IT Help Desk" (ITIL 4 2019, Agile/DevOps integration)](https://www.sysaid.com/blog/help-desk/the-30-year-evolution-of-the-it-help-desk-and-where-its-going-next), SysAid
35. [ServiceNow -- "ServiceNow launches Autonomous Workforce that thinks and acts; adds Moveworks to the ServiceNow AI Platform" (February 2026)](https://newsroom.servicenow.com/press-releases/details/2026/ServiceNow-launches-Autonomous-Workforce-that-thinks-and-acts-adds-Moveworks-to-the-ServiceNow-AI-Platform/default.aspx), ServiceNow

### Predecessors & successors

36. [US Census Bureau -- "Occupations in Information Technology" (ACS-35, 2016): IT occupation categories grew from 3 in 1970 to 12 by 2010](https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2016/acs/acs-35.html), US Census Bureau
37. [IBM -- "The IBM Personal Computer" (official history): PC drove need for structured user support](https://www.ibm.com/history/personal-computer), IBM

### Present-day analysis

- [O\*NET 30.3 -- Computer User Support Specialists (15-1232.00)](https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/15-1232.00), accessed 2026-06-03
- [BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook -- Computer Support Specialists (2024-34 projections: -3%)](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/computer-support-specialists.htm), accessed 2026-06-03
- [ServiceNow -- Autonomous Workforce launch: L1 Service Desk AI Specialist resolves 90%+ of targeted L1 volume (Feb 2026)](https://newsroom.servicenow.com/press-releases/details/2026/ServiceNow-launches-Autonomous-Workforce-that-thinks-and-acts-adds-Moveworks-to-the-ServiceNow-AI-Platform/default.aspx), accessed 2026-06-03
- [The Register -- ServiceNow AI bot resolving 90% of help desk tickets (Feb 2026)](https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/26/servicenow_ai_bot_helpdesk_tickets/), accessed 2026-06-03
- [Freshworks -- Freddy AI ITSM: 66% ticket deflection rate (UserEvidence survey data, 2026)](https://www.freshworks.com/freshservice/ai-itsm/), accessed 2026-06-03
- [Moveworks -- Broadcom achieves 88% autonomous resolution rate with Moveworks Copilot (2025)](https://www.moveworks.com/us/en/customers), accessed 2026-06-03
- [Microsoft Inside Track -- Employee Self-Service Agent: handling 50%+ of support interactions in Europe North (May 2026)](https://www.microsoft.com/insidetrack/blog/transforming-it-support-across-microsoft-with-the-employee-self-service-agent/), accessed 2026-06-03
- [ITU Online -- How AI Is Automating Tier 1 IT Support and what that means for your career (2025)](https://www.ituonline.com/blogs/how-ai-is-automating-tier-1-it-support-and-what-that-means-for-your-career/), accessed 2026-06-03
- [IT Brew -- How automation is impacting the help desk (March 2026)](https://www.itbrew.com/stories/2026/03/31/how-automation-is-impacting-the-help-desk), accessed 2026-06-03
- [ECCU -- From IT to Cybersecurity: How to Make a Career Transition Successfully (2025)](https://www.eccu.edu/blog/from-it-to-cybersecurity-how-to-make-a-career-transition-successfully/), accessed 2026-06-03
- [Eloundou et al. 2024 -- GPTs are GPTs (Science)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130), accessed 2026-06-03
- [Microsoft -- IT Helpdesk Copilot Studio template for automated device support (2026)](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/template-it-helpdesk), accessed 2026-06-03

How to read these figures: https://futurehistory.earth/methodology. Every figure links to its own source; gaps stay gaps.