# Court Reporters and Simultaneous Captioners

US SOC code 27-3092. Markdown version of https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/27-3092

Also called: Court reporter, Stenographer, Captioner, Realtime reporter, Realtime captioner.

## In brief

In May 2025, [BLS](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip) counted **12,870** US court reporters and simultaneous captioners, with median pay of **$72,420** a year. Of the BLS counts since 2021, the highest was **14,240**, in May 2022. The earliest figure here is [an estimate](https://www.ncra.org/home/about-ncra/History-of-NCRA) of **7,000** from 1960, not measured the same way as today's count. The last full technology era for court reporters and simultaneous captioners: Digital audio recording in courtrooms and Eclipse CAT maturation, 1996 to 2016.

## What the sources say

### Official outlook

BLS projects little or no change in employment from 2025 to 2035 (-0.1%). Source: [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=27-3092&ioType=o).

### AI exposure studies

- **52.1%** 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.

## Court Reporters and Simultaneous Captioners employment and pay by year

- On record since: 1772
- Latest US employment: 12,870 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [3]
- Latest US median pay: $72,420 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [7]
- Outlook: -0.1% by 2035. Source: BLS Employment Projections 2025-35 [21]

### All 12 years of cited US data

| Year | US employment | Annual pay (median unless marked) | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1960 | 7,000 (estimate) | n/a | Est., NCRA History of NCRA [1] |
| 1975 | 20,000 (estimate) | n/a | Est., NCRA History of NCRA [1] |
| 1982 | n/a | $22,000 (estimate) | Est., National Captioning Institute history [4] |
| 2000 | n/a | $39,660 | BLS OEWS 2000 [5] |
| 2013 | 32,000 (estimate) | n/a | Est., NCRA / Ducker Worldwide [2] |
| 2019 | 14,530 | $60,130 | BLS OEWS May 2019 (employment) [3]; BLS OEWS May 2019 (pay) [6] |
| 2020 | 13,880 | $61,660 | BLS OEWS May 2020 [3] |
| 2021 | 12,300 | $60,380 | BLS OEWS May 2021 [3] |
| 2022 | 14,240 | $63,560 | BLS OEWS May 2022 [3] |
| 2023 | 12,390 | $63,940 | BLS OEWS May 2023 [3] |
| 2024 | 12,630 | $67,310 | BLS OEWS May 2024 [3] |
| 2025 | 12,870 | $72,420 | BLS OEWS May 2025 [3] |

## Sources (51)

### Employment series

1. [NCRA History of NCRA — profession size reference, 1960 (approximately 7,000 verbatim reporters employed nationwide)](https://www.ncra.org/home/about-ncra/History-of-NCRA), National Court Reporters Association
2. [NCRA / Ducker Worldwide — Court Reporting Industry Outlook Study 2013-14 (approximately 32,000 stenographic court reporters)](https://www.ncra.org/docs/default-source/uploadedfiles/education/schools/2013-14_ncra_-industry_outlook-%28ducker%298ef018c4b8ea486e9f8638864df79109.pdf), National Court Reporters Association / Ducker Worldwide
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)

### Wage series

4. [National Captioning Institute history — 1982 Academy Awards real-time captioning; period rate context ($2,000/hr broadcast premium, trade rate estimates)](https://www.ncicap.org/history-of-cc), National Captioning Institute
5. [BLS OES 2000 national estimates (flat file)](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oes00nat.zip), Bureau of Labor Statistics
6. [BLS OEWS May 2019 — 27-3092 Court Reporters and Simultaneous Captioners, median annual wage $60,130](https://www.bls.gov/oes/2019/may/oes273092.htm), Bureau of Labor Statistics
7. BLS OEWS, national cross-industry estimates (flat file), Bureau of Labor Statistics. Editions: [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. [Muir Reporting Group — A History of Court Reporting (Gurney 1772; Pitman 1837; Gregg American edition 1893)](https://www.muirreportinggroup.com/history.htm), Muir Reporting Group
10. [Brief.steno.com — Stenography in Court Reporting: History, Evolution, and Modern Applications](https://brief.steno.com/what-is-stenography), Steno.com
11. [RL Resources — The Court Reporter's Best Friend: A History of the Stenograph](https://rlresources.com/2018/08/09/court-reporters-best-friend-history-stenograph/), RL Resources
12. [OJP / NCJRS — Computer-Aided Transcription in the Courts (abstract, Office of Justice Programs)](https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/computer-aided-transcription-courts), Office of Justice Programs
13. [Wikipedia — Real-time transcription (CAT history: O'Neill, CIA prototype, 1960s-1970s development)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-time_transcription), Wikipedia
14. [National Captioning Institute — History of Closed Captioning (1982 Academy Awards, first real-time live captioning)](https://www.ncicap.org/history-of-cc), National Captioning Institute
15. [Wikipedia — Communication access real-time translation (CART origin 1983, Linda Miller)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_access_real-time_translation), Wikipedia
16. [DCMP — Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990 (closed-caption mandate; all TVs 13+ inches by July 1993)](https://dcmp.org/learn/13-television-decoder-circuitry-act-of-1990), Described and Captioned Media Program
17. [For The Record — FTR Gold Digital Recording System (trusted foundation of digital court recording; 30,000+ courtrooms across 80+ countries)](https://www.fortherecord.com/products/ftr-gold/), For The Record
18. [Stenograph — History of Writing Machines (Eclipse CAT development timeline)](https://www.stenograph.com/history-writers), Stenograph
19. [Verbit — AI Transcription and Captioning Platform (court-specific; founded 2017, Series D 2021)](https://verbit.ai/), Verbit
20. [VIQ Solutions — Current data to understand the state of the court reporter industry (2013-2022 decline of 5,000 reporters; 364 new NCRA certifications in 2021)](https://viqsolutions.com/media-center/misconceptions-about-the-court-reporter-shortage-part-1/), VIQ Solutions

### Forecasts and exposure studies

21. [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35, National Employment Matrix: 27-3092 Court reporters and simultaneous captioners (2025: 19.9 thousand; 2035: 19.9 thousand; -0.1%)](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=27-3092&ioType=o), Bureau of Labor Statistics
22. [Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), "GPTs are GPTs", occupation-level exposure data occ\_level.csv (O\*NET-SOC 27-3092.00, human-rated β 0.521)](https://github.com/openai/GPTs-are-GPTs/blob/main/data/occ_level.csv), OpenAI

### Historical notes

23. [NCRA History of NCRA — founding 1899, 156 charter members, Kendrick Hill first president](https://www.ncra.org/home/about-ncra/History-of-NCRA), National Court Reporters Association
24. [DCMP — Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990; ADA.gov — Effective Communication Requirements (Section 504/508)](https://dcmp.org/learn/13-television-decoder-circuitry-act-of-1990), Described and Captioned Media Program / ADA.gov
25. [NCRA / Ducker Worldwide — Court Reporting Industry Outlook Study 2013-14 (32,000 reporters; 70% aged 46+; 5,500 shortage prediction)](https://www.ncra.org/docs/default-source/uploadedfiles/education/schools/2013-14_ncra_-industry_outlook-%28ducker%298ef018c4b8ea486e9f8638864df79109.pdf), National Court Reporters Association / Ducker Worldwide
26. [The JCR / NCRA — "Thank you for celebrating 125 years of NCRA!" (December 2024)](https://www.thejcr.com/2024/12/15/thank-you-for-celebrating-125-years-of-ncra/), The Journal of Court Reporting / NCRA

### Predecessors & successors

27. [Muir Reporting Group — A History of Court Reporting (Gurney 1772 first official shorthand writer)](https://www.muirreportinggroup.com/history.htm), Muir Reporting Group
28. [NCRA History of NCRA — early membership included office stenographers who also took verbatim legal work](https://www.ncra.org/home/about-ncra/History-of-NCRA), National Court Reporters Association
29. [National Captioning Institute — History of Closed Captioning (1982: court reporters trained as captioners for NCI)](https://www.ncicap.org/history-of-cc), National Captioning Institute
30. [O\*NET 27-3092.00 — pivot analysis; compliance documentation and regulatory proceedings overlap with court reporter skill set](https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/27-3092.00), O\*NET / BLS
31. [BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — Court Reporters; transitions into editorial and QA roles as AI first-pass transcription creates reviewer demand](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/legal/court-reporters.htm), Bureau of Labor Statistics

### Present-day analysis

- [BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — Court Reporters and Simultaneous Captioners, 2024-25](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-communication/court-reporters.htm), accessed 2026-05-24
- [O\*NET 30.3 — Court Reporters and Simultaneous Captioners (27-3092.00)](https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/27-3092.00), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Eloundou et al. 2024 — GPTs are GPTs (Science)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130), accessed 2026-05-24
- [NCRA — What is Court Reporting? / State of the Profession](https://www.ncra.org/home/the-profession/Court-Reporting), accessed 2026-06-21
- [Verbit — AI Transcription and Captioning Platform (court-specific)](https://verbit.ai/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [FCC Part 79 — Closed Captioning of Video Programming (accuracy standards)](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-C/part-79), accessed 2026-05-24
- [US Courts — Find a Case (PACER): Electronic Public Access to Federal Court Records](https://www.uscourts.gov/court-records/find-a-case-pacer), accessed 2026-06-21
- [3Play Media — AI Captioning and Accessibility Platform](https://www.3playmedia.com/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Rev AI — Speech-to-Text API (developer platform)](https://www.rev.ai), accessed 2026-06-21
- [For The Record — FTR Gold Digital Recording System](https://fortherecord.com/products/ftr-gold/), accessed 2026-06-21

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