Skip to content
STRATUSWORKFORCE SCAN
Menu

Court Reporters and Simultaneous Captioners

Use verbatim methods and equipment to capture, store, retrieve, and transcribe pretrial and trial proceedings or other information. Includes stenocaptioners who operate computerized stenographic captioning equipment to provide captions of live or prerecorded broadcasts for hearing-impaired viewers.

12,870 people do this job in the US. $72,420 a year.

now
36%

of the working time. Estimate.

Kinds of work
  • 79%
  • 0%
  • 21%
34%

Measured, from Anthropic's usage data (2025). Counts help on part of a task.

Half the desk work within reach
November 2026

On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.

Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030

0%25%50%75%100%2027202820292030NowDesk work: 79% of the time
Chosen to Ceiling: the share
DateNow
NowEnd of 2030

What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .

At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 4.4 h long four times in five.

How far this has come

With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 1%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 25%. Today's estimate: 36%.

0%10%20%30%40%50%2023202420252026GPT-4, March 2023: 0% within reachGPT-4 Turbo (Nov 2023), November 2023: 0% within reachGPT-4o, May 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.5 Sonnet (June 2024), June 2024: 0% within reacho1-preview, September 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.5 Sonnet (Oct 2024), October 2024: 0% within reacho1, December 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.7 Sonnet, February 2025: 1% within reacho3, April 2025: 2% within reachGPT-5, August 2025: 3% within reachGemini 3 Pro, November 2025: 5% within reachClaude Opus 4.5, November 2025: 5% within reachGPT-5.2, December 2025: 6% within reachClaude Opus 4.6, February 2026: 7% within reachClaude Mythos Preview (early), April 2026: 25% within reachToday (estimate), September 2026: 36% within reach
Each step is a new best model measured by METR, four in five; the dashed end is today's estimate. Point at a dot for the model.

A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.

The tasks

Sorted by . 15 tasks from .

TaskKind
Take notes in shorthand or use a stenotype or shorthand machine that prints letters on a paper tape.Done daily by most who do it. 20%3.3 h50 min to 6.7 hStays with people
Record verbatim proceedings of courts, legislative assemblies, committee meetings, and other proceedings, using computerized recording equipment, electronic stenograph machines, or stenomasks.Done daily by most who do it. 17%3.3 h50 min to 6.7 h32%Half by Jan 2027
Transcribe recorded proceedings in accordance with established formats.Done daily by most who do it. AI observed on this task.13%3.3 h50 min to 1.3 work days25%Half by Mar 2027
Record depositions and other proceedings for attorneys.Done daily by most who do it. 13%3.3 h50 min to 6.7 h32%Half by Jan 2027
Record symbols on computer storage media and use computer aided transcription to translate and display them as text.Done daily by most who do it. AI observed on this task.13%1.7 h25 min to 4.2 h57%Half by now
Proofread transcripts for correct spelling of words.Done daily by most who do it. 9%1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h77%Half by now
Provide transcripts of proceedings upon request of judges, lawyers, or the public.Done more than weekly by most who do it. 7%2.5 h50 min to 6.7 h46%Half by Oct 2026
Verify accuracy of transcripts by checking copies against original records of proceedings and accuracy of rulings by checking with judges.Done more than weekly by most who do it.5%1.7 h25 min to 5 h51%Half by now
File and store shorthand notes of court session.Done daily by most who do it. 2%25 min8 min to 50 min100%Half by now
File a legible transcript of records of a court case with the court clerk's office.Done more than monthly by most who do it. 0.6%38 min13 min to 1.7 h95%Half by now
Log and store exhibits from court proceedings.Done daily by most who do it.0.6%25 min8 min to 1.7 hStays with people
File exhibits.Done more than monthly by most who do it.0.3%17 min4 min to 50 minStays with people

Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.

Jobs that share skills with this one

From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.

Where this job works

The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).

Where the most of these jobs are

The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).