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MONEY Magazine and Salary.com rate careers on salary and job prospects.
MONEY Magazine and Salary.com
Forensic science technicians
Rank: Unranked. See top 50 best jobs.
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Average pay: $52,604
  Salary Total compensation
(includes bonus)
75% in this career make more than: $35,948 $37,177
50% in this career make more than: $46,191 $49,125
25% in this career make more than: $58,436 $63,158
Top potential compensation (5% make more):   $83,375

10-year job growth: 36.40%
Total jobs 2004: 9,823
Forecast 2014: 13,399
Average annual growth (including new jobs and net replacement): 589

Career description
Collect, identify, classify, and analyze physical evidence related to criminal investigations. Perform tests on weapons or substances, such as fiber, hair, and tissue to determine significance to investigation. May testify as expert witnesses on evidence or crime laboratory techniques. May serve as specialists in area of expertise, such as ballistics, fingerprinting, handwriting, or biochemistry.

Top 10: Highest-paying careers
  Average salary
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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.