Community Planner

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

A Community Planner plans and designs projects that maintain or improve the quality of life in a community. Addresses specific transportation, economic development, housing and environmental issues. Develops plans that address aesthetic as well as technical concerns. Identifies community goals and anticipates the future impact of development.

Job Outlook

There were 26 Community Planner job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 855 in the United States.

In combination with other careers in the Urban / Transportation Planner industry, which includes the Community Planner career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:

Salary

Many new Community Planner jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.

National

The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $81,419.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $81,419.

Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Community Planner postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $68,772.

Education and Experience

Posted Community Planner jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.

Education Level	Percentage
Associate's Degree	0%
Bachelor's Degree	66.2%
Master's Degree	32.28%
Doctoral Degree	4.68%
Other	6.32%

Posted Community Planner jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.

Years of Experience	Percentage
0 to 2 years	44.07%
3 to 5 years	45.92%
6 to 8 years	5.7%
9+ years	4.31%

Skills

Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Community Planner positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.

Baseline Skills

A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.

Planning (89.12%)
Management (43.74%)
Communication (38.71%)
Research (37.43%)
Writing (34.85%)
Coordinating (28.54%)
Presentations (28.3%)
Leadership (19.88%)
Operations (19.77%)
Microsoft Office (15.2%)

Defining Skills

A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.

Community Planning (47.2%)
Geographic Information Systems (25.49%)
Project Planning (22.93%)
Economics (31.95%)
Community Development (47.2%)
Urban Planning (30.24%)
Public Administration (33.9%)
Landscape Architecture (35.37%)
Geography (26.22%)
Land Use (21.1%)
Project Management (37.07%)
Political Sciences (22.68%)
Urban Affairs (18.29%)

Necessary Skills

A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.

Grant Applications (9.02%)
Historic Preservation (8.29%)
Policy Development (2.68%)
AutoCAD (6.22%)
ArcGIS (GIS Software) (7.8%)
Legal Hearings (7.2%)
Comprehensive Planning (13.66%)
Civil Engineering (12.07%)
Construction (11.22%)
Data Collection (10.12%)
Environmental Planning (5%)
Finance (21.59%)
Economic Analysis (20.61%)
Economic Development (18.41%)
Data Analysis (12.44%)
Land-Use Planning (16.95%)
Land Development (12.93%)
Sociology (22.07%)
Surveys (4.39%)
Public Policies (6.46%)
Regional Planning (22.32%)
SketchUp (3D Modeling Software) (7.07%)
Social Sciences (1.95%)
Land Zoning (10.24%)
Urban Design (15.73%)
Urban Studies (5.24%)
Transportation Planning (11.34%)

Alternative Job Titles

Sometimes employers post jobs with Community Planner skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:

Planner
Community Development Planner
Interdisciplinary Engineer Architect
Community Development Specialist
Military Planner
Community Development Director
Planner Intern
Community Development Administrator
Community Affairs Specialist

Similar Occupations

If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.

Common Employers

Here are the employers that have posted the most Community Planner jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.

United States

United States Department of Transportation (37)
FEMA (37)
United States Navy (30)
United States Department of Defense (22)
Matrix Design Group (17)
Naval Facilities Engineering Command (15)
HDR (15)
Stantec (10)
State of Minnesota (10)
Halff Associates (8)

North Carolina

City Of Rocky Mount (4)
Institute For Building Technology & Safety (2)
City of Durham (2)
Town Of Mooresville (2)
Cumberland County Nc (2)
NH Dept Of Natural And Cultural Resources (1)
Toole Design Bodyshop Limited (1)
Surry Community College (1)
Robeson County Fairgrounds (1)
City of Henderson (1)

NC State Programs Relevant to this Career

If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!

All wages, job posting statistics, employment trend projections, and information about skill desirability on this page represents historical data and does not guarantee future conditions. Data is provided by and downloaded regularly from Lightcast. For more information about how Lightcast gathers data and what it represents, see Lightcast Data: Basic Overview on Lightcast's Knowledge Base website.

Planning and Analysis