27 Series · SOC 27-2011
Actors Salary
National pay, percentile range, growth outlook, and state-by-state detail from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS survey (May 2025).
- +0.3%
- Growth '23–'33
- 55,000
- US workers
Actors (SOC 27-2011) does not have national wage data published for this release, typically because the occupation's workforce is small enough that BLS aggregates it into a parent SOC category or suppresses it to protect confidentiality. An estimated 55,000 Americans work in this occupation across 0 reporting states and 0 metro areas.
BLS Employment Projections forecast a +0.3% change in employment from 2024 to 2034, which the agency classifies as slower than average relative to the 5% all-occupations baseline. About 6,300 openings are projected per year, combining new positions with replacement needs from retirements and occupation-switchers. Typical entry-level preparation is Some college, no degree and long-term on-the-job training of on-the-job training. The BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) and Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) produce a workplace-safety grade of A for this role, with a fatality rate of 0.6 per 100,000 and injury rate of 0.5 per 100.
Geographic variation matters as much as the headline median. When using this page for negotiation or career planning, pair the national median with the state and metro rows below, remember that BLS wages exclude benefits, bonuses, and overtime, and revisit after each May OEWS release since percentiles shift with cost-of-living cycles and industry demand. See our methodology for exactly how these figures are sourced, computed, and verified.
Median Salary
N/A
per year
Median Hourly
$29.05/hr
per hour
Mean Salary
N/A
average
Employment
55,000
jobs nationwide
Does this job pay well and grow?
Each dot is a 27-series occupation, placed by projected 2024–2034 growth and median pay. The highlighted dot is Actors; the upper-right quadrant is the sweet spot (high pay + fast growth).
Among 24 27-series occupations with growth data, Actors sits on the slower-growing side at +0.3% growth and n/a median pay.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS (wages, May 2025) and Employment Projections (2024–2034).
Job Outlook (2024–2034)
Projected Growth
+0.3%
Slower than average
Annual Openings
6,300
per year (projected)
Typical Education
Some college, no degree
On-the-Job Training
Long-term on-the-job training
Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2024–2034
Workplace Safety
All safety ratings →Very Safe
Safety Grade (BLS 2023)
Fatality Rate
0.6/100K
Injury Rate
0.5/100
Danger Index
2.3/100
Source: BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) & Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII), 2023
Career Intelligence
Skills, knowledge, and tasks most important for Actors roles, ranked by importance. Source: O*NET.
Top Skills
Knowledge Areas
Key Tasks
- ▸ Collaborate with other actors as part of an ensemble.
- ▸ Portray and interpret roles, using speech, gestures, and body movements, to entertain, inform, or instruct radio, film, television, or live audiences.
- ▸ Work closely with directors, other actors, and playwrights to find the interpretation most suited to the role.
- ▸ Perform humorous and serious interpretations of emotions, actions, and situations, using body movements, facial expressions, and gestures.
- ▸ Study and rehearse roles from scripts to interpret, learn and memorize lines, stunts, and cues as directed.
- ▸ Learn about characters in scripts and their relationships to each other to develop role interpretations.
- ▸ Attend auditions and casting calls to audition for roles.
- ▸ Sing or dance during dramatic or comedic performances.
- ▸ Work with other crew members responsible for lighting, costumes, make-up, and props.
- ▸ Tell jokes, perform comic dances, songs and skits, impersonate mannerisms and voices of others, contort face, and use other devices to amuse audiences.
Source: O*NET Online, National Center for O*NET Development. Data represents typical importance ratings for this occupation.
Salary Range
Annual Salary Distribution
Hourly Rate Distribution
10th Percentile
N/A
25th Percentile
N/A
Median
N/A
75th Percentile
N/A
90th Percentile
N/A
Similar Occupations in the Same Category
Other roles in SOC major group 27 (arts design entertainment sports and media) with comparable pay and career paths.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Every figure on WageDex is rendered directly from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data, no number is typed in by an editor. This occupation's figures are computed directly from the BLS OEWS and Employment Projections datasets, nothing is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 2025.
This page is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or career advice. Actual pay for a specific role, employer, or offer may differ from these national/state figures, consult a qualified career counselor, recruiter, or financial advisor before making decisions based on this data.