Clinical Laboratory Technician
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
A Clinical Laboratory Technician, in a clinical laboratory setting, helps with the performance of laboratory tests in toxicology, chemistry, hematology, immunology, and microbiology laboratories, which provide information for medical patient diagnosis and treatment. Sets up, operates, and maintains laboratory equipment, makes observations, and calculates and records results; receives, types, tests, and records blood bank inventories.
Job Outlook
There were 546 Clinical Laboratory Technician job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 15011 in the United States.
In combination with other careers in the Laboratory Technician industry, which includes the Clinical Laboratory Technician career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:
Salary
Many new Clinical Laboratory Technician jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.
National
The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $66,173.
State
The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $63,019.
Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Clinical Laboratory Technician postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $48,386.
Education and Experience
Posted Clinical Laboratory Technician jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.
| Education Level | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Associate's Degree | 0% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 27.25% |
| Master's Degree | 5.1% |
| Doctoral Degree | 3.76% |
| Other | 45.35% |
Posted Clinical Laboratory Technician jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Years of Experience | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 0 to 2 years | 72.18% |
| 3 to 5 years | 20.72% |
| 6 to 8 years | 3.52% |
| 9+ years | 3.58% |
Skills
Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Clinical Laboratory Technician positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.
Baseline Skills
A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.
- Communication (30.96%)
- Customer Service (26.3%)
- Quality Control (20.68%)
- Detail Oriented (17.91%)
- Management (16.49%)
- Operations (16.23%)
- Troubleshooting (Problem Solving) (15.07%)
- Problem Solving (12.47%)
- Leadership (10.55%)
- Quality Assurance (10.55%)
Defining Skills
A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.
- Medical Laboratory (38.74%)
Necessary Skills
A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.
- Laboratory Experience (11.11%)
- Workflow Management (10.38%)
- Laboratory Equipment (12.17%)
- Specimen Processing (12.52%)
- Biology (26.39%)
- Clinical Laboratory Science (10.07%)
- Health Technology (12.54%)
- Billing (11.07%)
- Chemistry (15.52%)
- Auditing (4.56%)
- Good Manufacturing Practices (13.06%)
- Pathology (10.17%)
- Phlebotomy (16.42%)
- Data Entry (12.83%)
- Nursing (9.84%)
- Standard Operating Procedure (15.54%)
- Laboratory Testing (14.36%)
- Microbiology (11.09%)
Alternative Job Titles
Sometimes employers post jobs with Clinical Laboratory Technician skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:
- Specimen Collector
- Laboratory Technician
- Processing Technician
- Donor Center Technician
- Clinical Technician
- Cell Therapy Specialist
- Grossing Technician
- Mohs Technician
- Microbiology Technologist
Similar Occupations
If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.
- Laboratory Manager
- Clinical Laboratory Specialist
- Medical Laboratory Technologist
- Medical Laboratory Scientist
- Medical Technologist
Common Employers
Here are the employers that have posted the most Clinical Laboratory Technician jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.
United States
- Grifols (713)
- Octapharma (492)
- Millennium Health (354)
- Labcorp (260)
- Quest Diagnostics (224)
- Actalent (215)
- Fast Pace Health (197)
- Cleveland Clinic (168)
- Advantage Solutions (150)
- Aegis Sciences Corporation (145)
North Carolina
- Duke University (60)
- Grifols (44)
- WakeMed (29)
- Labcorp (26)
- Octapharma (17)
- The Volunteers At Wakemed Raleigh Campus (13)
- Radeas (9)
- HCA Healthcare (9)
- Cone Health (8)
- Quest Diagnostics (8)
NC State Programs Relevant to this Career
If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!
All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.