Career Explorer Law
Changing shape
Title examiners, abstractors, and searchers
Search real estate records, examine titles, or summarize pertinent legal or insurance documents or details for a variety of purposes. May compile lists of mortgages, contracts, and other instruments pertaining to titles by searching public and private records for law firms, real estate agencies, or title insurance companies.
Among the careers AI is changing fastest: more resilient than 18% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is high (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it high), and US jobs are projected to change by +2.1% by 2035, slower than average. The work leans on ethical judgement.
AI can do many of the tasks, and hiring is expected to grow slower than average or to shrink. The job is likely to change, so build the human parts of it.
- Median pay (2025)
- $58,650
- Job growth to 2035
- +2.1%
- Openings a year
- 5,300
- People doing it (2025)
- 59,800
- Usual route in
- High school diploma, then moderate on-the-job training
Where people already use AI for this work
- Consult legal materials or public records
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Prepare legal or regulatory documents
- Discuss legal matters with clients, disputants, or legal professionals or staff
- Direct legal activities
What the work looks like
- Prepare and issue title commitments and title insurance policies, based on information compiled from title searches.
- Examine documentation such as mortgages, liens, judgments, easements, plat books, maps, contracts, and agreements to verify factors such as properties' legal descriptions, ownership, or restrictions.
- Examine individual titles to determine if restrictions, such as delinquent taxes, will affect titles and limit property use.
- Prepare reports describing any title encumbrances encountered during searching activities and outlining actions needed to clear titles.
- Prepare lists of all legal instruments applying to a specific piece of land and the buildings on it.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- Fewer of these jobs, as law firms outsource an increasing amount of back office, administrative, and non-lawyer functions as a way to streamline operations and lower costs for clients.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Gambling surveillance officers and gambling investigatorsChanging shape, Index 32, -1.8%
- Bridge and lock tendersHuman edge, steady, Index 51, -2.3%
- Crossing guards and flaggersHuman edge, growing, Index 57, +3.5%
- Umpires, referees, and other sports officialsHuman edge, growing, Index 72, +5.2%
Also known as: Title Abstractor, Title Examiner, Title Officer, Title Searcher, Abstractor, Advisory Title Officer, Commercial Examiner, Commercial Title Examiner.
Is this career on your child's list?
Build a free Career Playbook matched to your child, or get a 90-day Action Plan with dated next steps, written for your child by name.
Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections 2025 to 2035; O*NET 31.0; Microsoft Research (2025); Anthropic Economic Index (2026); Eloundou and colleagues (Science, 2024); Felten, Raj and Seamans (2023). How we score. Updated 12 October 2026.