---
title: "Boilermaker"
description: "Construct, assemble, maintain, and repair stationary steam boilers and boiler house auxiliaries. Align structures or plate sections to assemble boiler…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/boilermaker"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Boilermaker

**Category:** Construction and Extraction · **SOC code:** 47-2011 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 47-2011.00

Construct, assemble, maintain, and repair stationary steam boilers and boiler house auxiliaries. Align structures or plate sections to assemble boiler frame tanks or vats, following blueprints. Work involves use of hand and power tools, plumb bobs, levels, wedges, dogs, or turnbuckles. Assist in testing assembled vessels. Direct cleaning of boilers and boiler furnaces. Inspect and repair boiler fittings, such as safety valves, regulators, automatic-control mechanisms, water columns, and auxiliary machines.

Also advertised as: Boiler Installer; Boiler Mechanic; Boiler Repairman; Boiler Service Technician (Boiler Service Tech); Boiler Technician (Boiler Tech); Boilermaker; Boilermaker Mechanic; Boilermaker Pipe Fitter.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $76,410 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $36.74/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $50,490 to $110,370, with the middle half between $64,760 and $95,430
- **Total US employment:** 10,190
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -1.8% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 700 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 53/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 10,190 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $50,490 |
| 25th | $64,760 |
| 50th (median) | $76,410 |
| 75th | $95,430 |
| 90th | $110,370 |
| Mean (average) | $80,090 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CA | $118,150 | $106,711 | 720 |
| MS | $105,910 | $121,801 | 280 |
| NM | $101,200 | $109,747 | 300 |
| IL | $99,730 | $99,772 | 110 |
| MI | $98,220 | $102,082 | Not published by BLS |
| WI | $97,590 | $103,714 | 170 |
| MN | $96,190 | $97,535 | 140 |
| WA | $95,200 | $88,961 | 190 |
| IN | $91,410 | $97,944 | 170 |
| CO | $89,350 | $86,704 | 40 |
| ID | $88,400 | $92,571 | 70 |
| PA | $86,850 | $89,011 | 260 |
| OH | $85,550 | $92,213 | 300 |
| NH | $85,470 | $82,053 | 60 |
| NY | $84,770 | $78,548 | 410 |

23 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 38 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/boilermaker/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/boilermaker.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 10,200 in the 2025–2035 base year to 10,100 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 200 jobs, or -1.8%. Declining: -1.8% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 700 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Apprenticeship.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 52.0% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 32.1% |
| Some College Courses | 15.9% |

## What the work involves

- Inspect assembled vessels or individual components, such as tubes, fittings, valves, controls, or auxiliary mechanisms, to locate any defects.
- Examine boilers, pressure vessels, tanks, or vats to locate defects, such as leaks, weak spots, or defective sections, so that they can be repaired.
- Conduct pressure tests on vessels, such as boilers.
- Repair or replace defective pressure vessel parts, such as safety valves or regulators, using torches, jacks, caulking hammers, power saws, threading dies, welding equipment, or metalworking machinery.
- Clean pressure vessel equipment, using scrapers, wire brushes, and cleaning solvents.
- Study blueprints to determine locations, relationships, or dimensions of parts.
- Install manholes, handholes, taps, tubes, valves, gauges, or feedwater connections in drums of water tube boilers, using hand tools.
- Bolt or arc weld pressure vessel structures and parts together, using wrenches or welding equipment.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Critical Thinking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Operations Monitoring — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Maintenance — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Repairing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Selection — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Mechanical — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Building and Construction — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Control Precision — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Manual Dexterity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 7.00 |
| C — Conventional | 3.72 |
| I — Investigative | 2.31 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |
| S — Social | 1.00 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 88.3 |
| ISTP | 78.3 |
| ISFJ | 72.4 |
| ESTJ | 70.8 |
| INTJ | 67.1 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Plumber](https://nuecareer.com/careers/plumber) — median $63,800
- [Millwright](https://nuecareer.com/careers/millwright) — median $65,700
- [Helpers--Pipelayer, Plumber, Pipefitter, and Steamfitter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/helpers-pipelayer-plumber-pipefitter-and-steamfitter) — median $42,360
- [Engine and Other Machine Assembler](https://nuecareer.com/careers/engine-and-other-machine-assembler) — median $53,710
- [Stationary Engineer and Boiler Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/stationary-engineer-and-boiler-operator) — median $78,620
- [Aircraft Structure, Surface, Rigging, and Systems Assembler](https://nuecareer.com/careers/aircraft-structure-surface-rigging-and-systems-assembler) — median $65,380
- [Structural Iron and Steel Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/structural-iron-and-steel-worker) — median $62,780
- [Structural Metal Fabricator and Fitter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/structural-metal-fabricator-and-fitter) — median $51,330
- [Welder](https://nuecareer.com/careers/welder) — median $53,750
- [Maintenance and Repair Worker, General](https://nuecareer.com/careers/maintenance-and-repair-worker-general) — median $49,590

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/boilermaker