# Social Science Research Assistants

US SOC code 19-4061. Markdown version of https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/19-4061

Also called: Research assistant, Research coordinator, Research associate, Project research assistant, Academic research assistant.

## In brief

In May 2025, [BLS](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip) counted **30,640** US social science research assistants, with median pay of **$61,990** a year. Of the BLS counts since 2021, the highest was **32,940**, in May 2024. The earliest figure here is [an estimate](https://www.norc.org/content/dam/norc-org/pdfs/ASA_Presentation_Bradburn.pdf) of **3,000** from 1947, not measured the same way as today's count. The last full technology era for social science research assistants: Qualtrics, Dedoose, ATLAS.ti, MAXQDA, Otter.ai precursors, 2005 to 2020. Online survey platforms and crowdsourcing displaced some RA hours in survey administration and routine coding.

## What the sources say

### Official outlook

BLS projects employment to grow 5% from 2025 to 2035. Source: [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=19-4061&ioType=o).

### AI exposure studies

- **62.1%** 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.

## Social Science Research Assistants employment and pay by year

- On record since: 1941
- Latest US employment: 30,640 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [5]
- Latest US median pay: $61,990 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [7]
- Outlook: +5% by 2035. Source: BLS Employment Projections 2025-35 [20]

### All 27 years of cited US data

| Year | US employment | Annual pay (median unless marked) | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1947 | 3,000 (estimate) | n/a | Est., NORC at the University of Chicago [1] |
| 1960 | 12,000 (estimate) | $3,900 (estimate) | Est., NSF Brief History (employment) [2]; Est., NACE Salary Survey historical… (pay) [6] |
| 1970 | 28,000 (estimate) | n/a | Est., Federal Funding for Academic Research [3] |
| 1980 | n/a | $14,500 (estimate) | Est., NACE Salary Survey historical… [6] |
| 1990 | 32,000 (estimate) | n/a | Est., IPUMS USA [4] |
| 2004 | 15,710 | $34,360 | BLS OEWS May 2004 [5] |
| 2005 | 16,320 | $33,950 | BLS OEWS May 2005 [5] |
| 2006 | 15,840 | $33,860 | BLS OEWS May 2006 [5] |
| 2007 | 16,070 | $35,870 | BLS OEWS May 2007 [5] |
| 2008 | 18,120 | $35,650 | BLS OEWS May 2008 [5] |
| 2009 | 21,720 | $37,500 | BLS OEWS May 2009 [5] |
| 2010 | 25,830 | $37,230 | BLS OEWS May 2010 [5] |
| 2011 | 26,200 | $38,800 | BLS OEWS May 2011 [5] |
| 2012 | 26,370 | $37,140 | BLS OEWS May 2012 [5] |
| 2013 | 26,830 | $38,310 | BLS OEWS May 2013 [5] |
| 2014 | 27,780 | $39,460 | BLS OEWS May 2014 [5] |
| 2015 | 28,060 | $42,480 | BLS OEWS May 2015 [5] |
| 2016 | 30,030 | $43,190 | BLS OEWS May 2016 [5] |
| 2017 | 31,500 | $46,000 | BLS OEWS May 2017 [5] |
| 2018 | 34,550 | $46,640 | BLS OEWS May 2018 [5] |
| 2019 | 35,580 | $47,510 | BLS OEWS May 2019 [5] |
| 2020 | 35,330 | $49,210 | BLS OEWS May 2020 [5] |
| 2021 | 28,690 | $49,720 | BLS OEWS May 2021 [5] |
| 2022 | 28,720 | $50,470 | BLS OEWS May 2022 [5] |
| 2023 | 30,890 | $56,400 | BLS OEWS May 2023 [5] |
| 2024 | 32,940 | $58,040 | BLS OEWS May 2024 [5] |
| 2025 | 30,640 | $61,990 | BLS OEWS May 2025 [5] |

## Sources (82)

### Employment series

1. [NORC at the University of Chicago -- history and founding (ASA Presentation by Norman Bradburn on the place of NORC in the development of US survey research)](https://www.norc.org/content/dam/norc-org/pdfs/ASA_Presentation_Bradburn.pdf), NORC at the University of Chicago
2. [NSF Brief History -- NSF appropriation grew from $3.5 million (1952) to $134 million (1959) post-Sputnik; NSF formally established Office of Social Science in 1958](https://www.nsf.gov/about/history/narrative), National Science Foundation
3. [Federal Funding for Academic Research -- StateUniversity.com (brief history of federal involvement in university-based research, GI Bill and postwar expansion)](https://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1987/Federal-Funding-Academic-Research.html), StateUniversity.com / academic reference
4. [IPUMS USA -- Occupation and Industry Codes and Documentation (1980-1990 Census occupation classification including research technicians and social science support workers)](https://usa.ipums.org/usa/volii/occ_ind.shtml), IPUMS / University of Minnesota
5. BLS OEWS, national cross-industry estimates (flat file), Bureau of Labor Statistics. Editions: [2004](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm04nat.zip), [2005](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm05nat.zip), [2006](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm06nat.zip), [2007](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm07nat.zip), [2008](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm08nat.zip), [2009](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm09nat.zip), [2010](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm10nat.zip), [2011](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm11nat.zip), [2012](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm12nat.zip), [2013](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm13nat.zip), [2014](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm14nat.zip), [2015](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm15nat.zip), [2016](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm16nat.zip), [2017](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm17nat.zip), [2018](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm18nat.zip), [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)

### Wage series

6. [NACE Salary Survey historical perspective -- 1960 college graduate starting salaries; federal GS pay scale history (research technician grade equivalents)](https://www.naceweb.org/job-market/compensation/salary-trends-through-salary-survey-a-historical-perspective-on-starting-salaries-for-new-college-graduates/), National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE)
7. BLS OEWS, national cross-industry estimates (flat file), Bureau of Labor Statistics. Editions: [2004](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm04nat.zip), [2005](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm05nat.zip), [2006](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm06nat.zip), [2007](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm07nat.zip), [2008](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm08nat.zip), [2009](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm09nat.zip), [2010](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm10nat.zip), [2011](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm11nat.zip), [2012](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm12nat.zip), [2013](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm13nat.zip), [2014](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm14nat.zip), [2015](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm15nat.zip), [2016](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm16nat.zip), [2017](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm17nat.zip), [2018](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm18nat.zip), [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)
8. [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

### Tool eras

9. [NORC at University of Chicago -- history and founding; field interviewer and coder operations in the 1940s-1950s (ASA presentation, Norman Bradburn)](https://www.norc.org/content/dam/norc-org/pdfs/ASA_Presentation_Bradburn.pdf), NORC at the University of Chicago
10. [Roper Center for Public Opinion Research -- Rensis Likert biography and Survey Research Center founding (field staff operations, 1946-1960)](https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/pioneers-polling/rensis-likert), Roper Center for Public Opinion Research / Cornell University
11. [Wikipedia -- SPSS history (founded 1968, Norman Nie, Hadlai Hull, Dale Bent; originally for IBM mainframes; transformed social science data analysis)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPSS), Wikipedia
12. [NSF Brief History -- NSF social science funding expansion and Daddario-Kennedy amendment (1968) formally designating social sciences as eligible NSF field](https://www.nsf.gov/about/history/narrative), National Science Foundation
13. [Wikipedia -- Stata (statistical software history, founded 1985)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stata), Wikipedia
14. [Wikipedia -- NVivo (qualitative data analysis software, NUD\*IST origins 1981, NVivo 1.0 released 1999)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NVivo), Wikipedia
15. [Dedoose -- cloud-based mixed-methods data analysis platform (founded 2011; widely used in social science health and psychology research)](https://www.dedoose.com/), Dedoose
16. [Wikipedia -- Qualtrics (founded 2002 Ryan Smith; widely adopted in academic research by 2008; transformed online survey deployment for social science RAs)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualtrics), Wikipedia
17. [Hilkenmeier et al. 2025 -- Evaluating Elicit as Semi-Automated Second Reviewer for Data Extraction in Systematic Reviews (Sociological Methods and Research, doi:10.1177/08944393251404052): 81% accuracy on structured data extraction vs. human reviewers](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/08944393251404052), Sociological Methods and Research / Sage
18. [Eloundou et al. 2023 -- GPTs are GPTs: An Early Look at the Labor Market Impact Potential of Large Language Models (Science, 2024, doi:10.1126/science.adj0998): Social Science Research Assistants assigned alpha=0.91, beta=0.85 -- among the highest LLM exposure scores in the full O\*NET occupation dataset](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adj0998), OpenAI / Science
19. [Sonix -- FERPA-compliant AI transcription: 99%+ accuracy, 10 minutes per 2-hour interview, NVivo/ATLAS.ti export-ready, fully automating the highest-volume RA time sink in qualitative research](https://sonix.ai/resources/ferpa-compliant-transcription-software-research-academia/), Sonix

### Forecasts and exposure studies

20. [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35, National Employment Matrix: 19-4061 Social science research assistants (2025: 38.4 thousand; 2035: 40.4 thousand; +5.0%)](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=19-4061&ioType=o), Bureau of Labor Statistics
21. [Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), "GPTs are GPTs", occupation-level exposure data occ\_level.csv (O\*NET-SOC 19-4061.00, human-rated β 0.621)](https://github.com/openai/GPTs-are-GPTs/blob/main/data/occ_level.csv), OpenAI

### Historical notes

22. [NORC at University of Chicago -- history and founding (1941); Roper Center for Public Opinion Research](https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/norc-early-years), Roper Center for Public Opinion Research / Cornell University
23. [University of Michigan Institute for Social Research -- history; Wikipedia summary of founding and organizational milestones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Michigan_Institute_for_Social_Research), University of Michigan / Wikipedia
24. [NSF Brief History -- Daddario-Kennedy amendment (1968) and the formalization of social science within NSF's mandate](https://www.nsf.gov/about/history/narrative), National Science Foundation
25. [Wikipedia -- SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences): history, 1968 release, Norman Nie, Hadlai Hull, Dale Bent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPSS), Wikipedia
26. [Wikipedia -- NVivo (qualitative data analysis software): history, NUD\*IST origins 1981, NVivo 1.0 released 1999](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NVivo), Wikipedia
27. [AAUP -- Artificial Intelligence and Academic Professions (May 2025 report): AI threats to academic professions including research support roles; survey of institutional AI governance](https://www.aaup.org/reports-publications/aaup-policies-reports/topical-reports/artificial-intelligence-and-academic), American Association of University Professors

### Predecessors & successors

28. [NORC at University of Chicago -- history and founding; field interviewer operations in the 1941-1947 period (ASA presentation, Norman Bradburn)](https://www.norc.org/content/dam/norc-org/pdfs/ASA_Presentation_Bradburn.pdf), NORC at the University of Chicago
29. [NSF Brief History -- graduate fellowship programs and expansion of social science doctoral training from the 1960s](https://www.nsf.gov/about/history/narrative), National Science Foundation
30. [O\*NET 19-4061.00 -- career ladder: Social Science Research Assistants to Sociologists via doctoral training (O\*NET job zone progression)](https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/19-4061.00), O\*NET / BLS

### Present-day analysis

- [O\*NET 30.3 — Social Science Research Assistants (19-4061.00): tasks, work activities, technology skills, knowledge domains](https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/19-4061.00), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Eloundou et al. 2024 — GPTs are GPTs (Science / arXiv 2303.10130): alpha=0.91, beta=0.85 for Social Science Research Assistants — one of the highest LLM exposure scores in the dataset; nearly all RA tasks rated as exposed to GPT-4 augmentation](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Hilkenmeier et al. 2025 — Evaluating the AI Tool "Elicit" as Semi-Automated Second Reviewer for Data Extraction in Systematic Reviews (Sociological Methods & Research, doi:10.1177/08944393251404052): ~81% accuracy vs. human reviewers for structured data extraction — directly automating core RA literature review tasks](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/08944393251404052), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Schueller et al. 2026 — Evaluating AI-Assisted Deductive Coding in MAXQDA: A Methodological Analysis of Inputs and Outputs (Social Science Computer Review, doi:10.1177/16094069251407046): AI coding scaffolds 50-page interview transcripts in hours vs. weeks; documents specific input-output patterns for AI-assisted deductive coding](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/16094069251407046), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Springer Quality & Quantity 2025 — Thematic analysis of interview data with ChatGPT: designing and testing a reliable qualitative research protocol (doi:10.1007/s11135-025-02199-3): validated protocol for ChatGPT-assisted thematic analysis reduces RA coding burden](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11135-025-02199-3?error=cookies_not_supported&code=03bed1cd-e786-42bf-a370-a99674c1bf62), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Davidson & Karell 2025 — Integrating Generative AI into Social Science Research: Measurement, Prompting, and Simulation (Sociological Methods & Research, doi:10.1177/00491241251339184): LLMs make systematic measurement errors that researchers (not RAs acting alone) must catch; documents specific AI-coding workflows now standard in social science research](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00491241251339184), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Federal Reserve FEDS Notes — Educational Exposure to Generative Artificial Intelligence (Feb 2026): Social Sciences among highest LLM-exposed academic disciplines; AI productivity gains flow through RA-tier support work in the research pipeline](https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/educational-exposure-to-generative-artificial-intelligence-20250226.html), accessed 2026-05-24
- [PS: Political Science & Politics 2024 — "Applications of GPT in Political Science Research: Extracting Information from Unstructured Text" (Lee et al.): GPT-4 achieves ~94% accuracy on archival document extraction — a classic RA assignment now performable by AI; notes student research employment affected by AI automation of RA tasks](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ps-political-science-and-politics/article/applications-of-gpt-in-political-science-research-extracting-information-from-unstructured-text/7614D066F380A3751D298C2FF3C74F65), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Sonix — FERPA-compliant AI transcription for academic qualitative research: 99%+ accuracy, 53+ languages, NVivo/ATLAS.ti export-ready, 10 minutes per 2-hour interview — fully automating one of the most time-consuming traditional RA tasks](https://sonix.ai/resources/ferpa-compliant-transcription-software-research-academia/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Otter.ai — AI transcription for research meetings, interviews, and focus groups: real-time transcription with speaker identification, summary generation, and integrations with Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams for remote research sessions](https://otter.ai/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Julius AI — AI data analysis and statistical scripting: executes Python and R from natural-language prompts; generates data cleaning scripts, descriptive statistics, and regression tables from uploaded datasets; registers at julius.ai (2025)](https://julius.ai/), accessed 2026-05-24

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