Private investigator jobs and pay

• 35,580 private detectives and investigators were employed in May 2025, not counting the self-employed (wage survey, which excludes the self-employed).
• $51,220 was the median annual wage, and $60,150 the mean ($28.92 an hour).
• 39,500 jobs in 2025, counting 3,900 self-employed, are projected to reach 41,700 in 2035, up 5 percent (Occupational Outlook Handbook).
• About 3,200 openings are projected each year, on average, over the decade.
• The typical entry path the Bureau lists is a high school diploma or equivalent, less than 5 years of related work experience, and moderate-term on-the-job training.

The Bureau’s occupation (code 33-9021) covers people who gather, analyze, compile, and report information about individuals or organizations for clients, or who detect unlawful acts or rule-breaking inside a private establishment. It is defined by duties, not by license: the Bureau’s examples include store detectives and skip tracers, and in-house investigators count too. The Bureau notes that most states require private detectives and investigators to be licensed; see Licensing requirements by state.

The mean wage ($60,150) is higher than the median ($51,220).

Each table lists the top five the Bureau reports, with the relative standard error (RSE) of the estimate. A higher RSE means a less precise estimate.

A location quotient compares the occupation’s share of a state’s jobs with its share nationally. Louisiana’s 1.94 means the occupation makes up almost twice as large a share of jobs there as in the country as a whole.

Retail is the largest employer. General merchandise retailers alone employ about a third of private detectives and investigators on payrolls.

“Not released” means the Bureau did not publish the estimate. A high RSE means an imprecise estimate, and the Bureau does not encourage using these estimates to compare years.

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The two figures come from different Bureau programs. The 35,580 is from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey of employers, for May 2025, released May 15, 2026. The 39,500 is from the Employment Projections program, released August 27, 2026, which counts all classes of workers, including the self-employed. Its National Employment Matrix splits the 39,500 into 35,600 wage and salary jobs and 3,900 self-employed. See the Bureau’s explanation.

Sources: OEWS occupation profile, May 2025, OEWS news release, Occupational Outlook Handbook, and Employment Projections news release.