Cartographic Technician
Federal headcount, average salary, length of service, and pay comparison for the Cartographic Technician occupation series (code 1371), drawn directly from the OPM FedScope dataset (June 2026).
The verdict
Cartographic Technician is a smaller, specialized federal occupation: 197 employees (0.0% of the federal civilian workforce) in the Physical Sciences Group family. At an average salary of $70,389 it pays below the federal average.
- Headcount change
- 0.0%
- Pay change
- -0.4%
- Avg tenure
- 17.1 yrs
- Rank in family
- #17 of 25
What the Numbers Say About Cartographic Technician
For job seekers weighing career length: this series shows a long average tenure, typical of career federal roles where employees stay through much of a full career before retirement. Headcount moved sideways versus the prior period, though at this small a headcount, year-to-year swings can reflect a handful of hires or departures rather than a broad hiring trend. As for pay, the latest move was a small shift, within the range of normal year-to-year rounding rather than a broad pay-table change.
The Physical Sciences Group family (code 13) groups Cartographic Technician together with 24 other related occupations across the federal government. Candidates browsing USAJOBS for Cartographic Technician postings should also review these sibling occupations in the Physical Sciences Group family. Across the Physical Sciences Group family, 26,960 employees work in 25 occupations; Cartographic Technician is 0.7% of that headcount.
Salary context · lean-pay series
How Cartographic Technician pay compares to the federal average
Occupation Average
$70,389
Federal Average
$117,339
vs. Federal Avg
-40.0%
Where Cartographic Technician ranks on lean federal pay
Cartographic Technician earns more on average than 26% of federal occupation series (141 of 541). The highlighted bar marks where Cartographic Technician sits in the federal pay distribution.
Average-salary distribution across all 541 federal occupation series; the highlighted bar marks Cartographic Technician.
Related Occupations in Physical Sciences Group
10 other occupations in the same family
| Occupation | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| General Physical Science | 8,297 | $145,078 | 14.6 yrs |
| Chemistry | 4,440 | $149,099 | 14.9 yrs |
| Meteorology | 2,494 | $123,942 | 15.9 yrs |
| Physics | 2,009 | $174,005 | 15.9 yrs |
| Physical Science Technician | 1,577 | $78,820 | 13.3 yrs |
| Hydrology | 1,524 | $116,486 | 17.1 yrs |
| Hydrologic Technician | 1,356 | $76,077 | 12.9 yrs |
| Geology | 1,240 | $124,746 | 14 yrs |
| Health Physics | 746 | $146,649 | 16.4 yrs |
| Cartography | 487 | $120,890 | 16.3 yrs |
Nationwide occupation series with similar scale or pay
Two peer sets for Cartographic Technician outside the Physical Sciences Group family, on headcount and average salary axes that vary across all OPM occupation series.
Similar headcount
Nearest employee counts in other occupation families (197 here).
Similar lean average salary
Nearest average salaries in other occupation families ($70,389 here).
Key takeaways
- Place Cartographic Technician pay in context with the pay-rank chart above, then compare it with another occupation.
- Turn an average salary into a grade: the GS pay grade tables show how grades and steps map to pay.
- Browse the Physical Sciences Group family occupations in the table above, or search current Cartographic Technician postings on USAJOBS.
OPM FedScope and Federal Workforce Data figures are federal civilian headcounts, average salaries, and length-of-service statistics - not job-quality scores, hiring advice, or a live vacancy listing. A larger or higher-paid agency is not a better employer.