Optician Statistics 2026: Job Market, Pay, Demand & Workforce

OptometryHires had 2,226 open optician listings from 53 employers on November 5, 2026.

179 were first posted in the previous 14 days and 626 in the previous 30 days.

At least 13.7% of optician listings were part-time on November 5, 2026.

Listings that name no schedule are counted as full-time, so the real part-time share is likely higher.

The benefit optician listings named most often on November 5, 2026 was paid time off, in 93.4% of listings, followed by health insurance (63.6%).

A listing that does not mention a benefit may still offer it.

To browse the openings themselves, see all optician listings.

BLS publishes no optician-only wage, so the figure here is for dispensing opticians (SOC 29-2081), the exact BLS occupation, which includes contact lens fitters.

The median wage for that occupation was $47,260 a year in May 2025 (BLS OEWS, Opticians, Dispensing (SOC 29-2081), May 2025).

The middle half of workers in that occupation earned $38,820 to $61,700 a year.

Employers hiring opticians on OptometryHires advertise a median of $22.00 an hour across 16 employers on November 5, 2026; this is advertised pay, not earnings.

California had the most open optician listings on November 5, 2026, with 375 (16.8% of the national total).

Florida followed with 210 (9.4%).

To browse the openings in one state, start with optician openings in California.

53 employers had open optician listings on OptometryHires on November 5, 2026, and the five largest posted 89.9% of them.

23 employers (43.4%) had exactly one open optician listing.

The largest single employer, Costco Wholesale, posted 59.1% of all optician listings, so this sample leans toward large employers.

Employers reported 73,530 dispensing opticians on payroll in May 2025 (BLS OEWS, SOC 29-2081).

31,920 of those opticians worked in offices of optometrists in May 2025, at a median of $45,320 a year (BLS OEWS industry estimates, NAICS 621320).

BLS projects dispensing optician employment to grow 4.2% from 2025 to 2035, from 74,300 to 77,400 jobs, with about 5,600 openings a year (BLS Employment Projections 2025-35).

Listing figures are computed from every active, paid optician listing on OptometryHires at the time shown, and refreshed every six hours.

Listings on a job board are not a random sample of all optician jobs, so read them as a picture of current hiring, not of total employment.

This page is published only while the live sample has at least 300 listings from 25 employers.

Advertised pay is the midpoint of the range an employer posts, or its single figure, and hourly and annual postings are never converted into each other.

The headline is the employer median: each employer’s own median, then the median across employers, so a group posting hundreds of openings counts once.

A pay figure needs at least 30 listings from 10 employers and is withheld when one employer posted more than half of them.

Federal figures come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the other sources listed below, quoted as published, with the year in each sentence.

BLS counts licensed and unlicensed dispensing opticians together (SOC 29-2081), contact lens fitters included. OEWS covers payroll employees only.