Aviation jobs
Every job board shows you openings. That tells you who is advertising, not where the work is. This starts from the other side: how many instructors, mechanics and commercial pilots each state actually has, and how much demand is sitting on them.
Where instructors are scarcest
Student pilots per flight instructor, 2025. A high number means each instructor in that state is carrying more demand — which is where schools struggle to staff, and where a new CFI has the most leverage. States with fewer than 200 instructors are excluded, because small denominators produce nonsense ratios.
Where instructors are thickest on the ground
The other end of the same list. These states have the most instructors relative to students — good places to train, harder places to get hired.
Where mechanics are stretched
Pilots per certificated mechanic, 2025. Maintenance is the quieter shortage — aircraft do not fly without an A&P signature, and the replacement rate for mechanics gets a fraction of the attention the pilot pipeline does.
Hiring? Post a position
Listings open to flight schools, charter operators, maintenance shops and corporate flight departments. Free while the board is being built, and every listing carries the market data for its state alongside it — so a candidate sees not just the job, but what the local supply looks like.
jobs@pilotcensus.comRatios are derived from the FAA's 2025 certificate counts by state. They describe certificate holders resident in a state, not employment — an instructor who holds a certificate may not be teaching. Methodology.