Librarian statistics show a profession of 142,100 librarians and library media specialists in 2024, with a median annual wage of $64,320 and projected employment growth of 2% from 2024 to 2034. The broader U.S. library workforce included about 289,400 professional and technical workers in 2024.
Contents
- Employment and outlook
- Wages and earnings
- Work settings and staffing
- Education and qualifications
- Workforce demographics
- Academic library statistics
Employment and outlook
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported an employment level of 142,100 for librarians and library media specialists in 2024. Its 2024 employment projections table uses the related category “librarians and media collections specialists” and gives the same current employment level as 142.1 thousand. The table projects 144.5 thousand jobs by 2034, a numeric increase of 2.4 thousand.
The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) describes the projected change as 2% from 2024 to 2034. That rate is modest, but the occupation is still projected to generate about 13,500 openings per year, on average, over the decade. The openings figure includes opportunities created by employment growth and by workers leaving the occupation or moving to other positions.
| Measure | 2024 or projection period | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| Employment level | 2024 | 142,100 |
| Projected employment | 2034 | 144,500 |
| Numeric change | 2024–2034 | 2,400 jobs |
| Projected growth rate | 2024–2034 | 2% |
| Average projected openings | Each year, 2024–2034 | 13,500 |
These employment and outlook figures come from the BLS OOH librarians page and the BLS employment projections table. The BLS library science field of degree page also lists a 2% projected growth rate for librarians and media collections specialists over 2024–34.
Librarians and library media specialists help people find information and conduct research for personal and professional use, according to the BLS OOH. Most work full time, although part-time work is common. These facts describe the occupation broadly; work schedules and duties can differ by library type and employer.
Wages and earnings
The BLS reported a median annual wage of $64,320 for librarians and library media specialists in May 2024. The corresponding median hourly wage was $30.92. At the lower end of the wage distribution, the lowest 10% earned less than $38,920, while the highest 10% earned more than $100,880.
The BLS employment projections table also reports the $64,320 median annual wage for librarians and media collections specialists. Because the table and the OOH describe closely related occupational categories, the figures should be read in the context of the named category on each source.
Pay varied by industry and employer type in the BLS OOH May 2024 figures:
- Elementary and secondary schools paid a median annual wage of $69,880.
- State colleges, universities, and professional schools paid a median annual wage of $68,570.
- Private colleges, universities, and professional schools paid a median annual wage of $66,260.
- Local government, excluding education and hospitals, paid a median annual wage of $60,510.
- Web search portals, libraries, archives, and other information services paid a median annual wage of $59,810.
The employer comparison is useful because the overall median does not represent every library setting. It also shows that the highest listed median in this group, $69,880 in elementary and secondary schools, was $10,070 above the lowest listed median, $59,810 in web search portals, libraries, archives, and other information services. This is a direct comparison of the supplied May 2024 medians, not a calculation of expected individual pay.
The DPE library professionals fact sheet reported a different measure for full-time librarians in 2024: a mean hourly wage of $33.26 and a mean annual salary of $69,180. Mean and median wages are not interchangeable. The mean can be pulled upward by higher earners, while the median identifies the midpoint of the wage distribution.
The District of Columbia had the highest mean annual earnings for full-time librarians in the DPE fact sheet, at $94,300 in 2024. That figure is a geographic earnings measure for the District of Columbia and should not be treated as the national average or as the typical wage in every state.
Work settings and staffing
The DPE library professionals fact sheet counted about 289,400 professional and technical workers employed in libraries in the United States in 2024. That broad total included 186,500 librarians, 37,400 library technicians, and 65,500 library assistants.
Within the librarian workforce, employment was distributed across several settings in 2024:
- 27% worked in public libraries.
- 34% worked in elementary and secondary schools.
- 22% worked in colleges, universities, and professional schools.
- 17% worked in other libraries and archives.
The percentages describe the supplied distribution of librarian employment. They are not a count of every worker in the broader library workforce, which also includes technicians and assistants. The categories also reflect the DPE fact sheet’s grouping rather than a new classification created here.
The same source reported that 20% of librarians worked part-time in 2024. This aligns with the BLS OOH statement that part-time work is common, while the BLS also says most librarians and library media specialists work full time.
The difference between the broad library workforce and the librarian-only workforce matters when interpreting staffing statistics. The 289,400 figure covers professional and technical workers employed in libraries, while the 186,500 figure identifies librarians within that total. Library technicians and assistants account for additional roles that support services, collections, access, and daily operations.
Education and qualifications
The BLS OOH says librarians typically need a master’s degree in library science. For school librarians and library media specialists, the typical preparation is a bachelor’s or master’s degree in a related field plus a teaching certificate.
The BLS library science field of degree page likewise lists a master’s degree as the typical entry-level education for librarians and media collections specialists. The 2024 BLS employment projections table also identifies a master’s degree as the education required for typical entry.
Education levels among librarians were reported by the DPE library professionals fact sheet for 2024. In that data, 54% of librarians held a master’s degree or higher, 26% held a bachelor’s degree, and 5% held an associate’s degree. These percentages do not describe every possible education category, so they should not be combined as though they represented a complete 100% distribution.
The BLS library science field of degree page reported that 59% of librarians and media collections specialists with a library science degree had an advanced degree in 2024. The same page reported that librarians and media collections specialists accounted for 36% of workers with a library science degree. This percentage is a degree-field measure, not a share of all librarians in the United States.
Together, these measures show why “education required for entry” and “education held by workers” should be kept separate. A master’s degree is listed as the typical entry-level education in the BLS occupational measures, while the DPE workforce figures describe the credentials held by librarians already working in 2024.
Workforce demographics
The DPE library professionals fact sheet reported that 34% of librarians were over age 55 in 2024. That age measure identifies a substantial older segment of the workforce, but it does not by itself predict retirements or future openings.
Women represented 89.2% of all librarians in 2024, according to the same fact sheet. The source also reported that women represented 82.5% of MLS graduates in 2021–2022. These figures refer to different populations and periods: the first covers all librarians in 2024, while the second covers MLS graduates in the 2021–2022 academic period.
The DPE fact sheet gave several subgroup measures for MLS graduates. Black women accounted for 4.6% of MLS graduates in 2021–2022, Asian or Pacific Islander women accounted for 2.7% in that period, and Hispanic women accounted for 8.4% of the 2022 MLS class. Because the measures use different wording and, for the Hispanic figure, a different class-year label, they should be retained as reported rather than merged into one calculation.
The demographic statistics provide context for the occupation’s current composition and training pipeline. They do not establish causes for the reported patterns, and the supplied figures do not include a complete breakdown for every demographic group.
Academic library statistics
The 2023 State of U.S. Academic Libraries report from the American Library Association (ALA) reported that librarians made up 33.6% of total staff full-time equivalents across all institutions. This is an academic-library staffing measure and should not be compared directly with the DPE percentage distribution for all librarians without accounting for the different populations and definitions.
The same ALA report recorded average total circulation of 620,488 across all institutions in 2023. The measurement period is 2023, and the statistic concerns academic library circulation across the institutions included in the report. It is not a national count of every item circulated by every type of library.
Academic library staffing and circulation describe two different dimensions of library activity. The 33.6% figure concerns the share of total staff FTE represented by librarians, while the 620,488 figure concerns average total circulation. Neither measure is a substitute for the BLS employment, wage, or occupational outlook statistics.
For readers comparing career and service statistics, the time periods are especially important. BLS wage figures are from May 2024, BLS employment levels refer to 2024, BLS projections cover 2024–2034, the DPE workforce measures refer to 2024 unless otherwise stated, and the ALA academic library measures refer to 2023. Keeping those dates and geographies explicit prevents current employment data, projected openings, graduate statistics, and academic circulation measures from being treated as one single-year dataset.