---
title: "Brickmason and Blockmason"
description: "Lay and bind building materials, such as brick, structural tile, concrete block, cinder block, glass block, and terra-cotta block, with mortar and other…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/brickmason-and-blockmason"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Brickmason and Blockmason

**Category:** Construction and Extraction · **SOC code:** 47-2021 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 47-2021.00

Lay and bind building materials, such as brick, structural tile, concrete block, cinder block, glass block, and terra-cotta block, with mortar and other substances, to construct or repair walls, partitions, arches, sewers, and other structures.

Also advertised as: Block Layer; Block Mason; Blockmason; Brick and Block Mason; Brick Mason; Bricklayer; Mason; Masonry Installer.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $62,120 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $29.87/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $44,820 to $100,010, with the middle half between $51,110 and $79,350
- **Total US employment:** 52,550
- **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:** +1.1% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 4,100 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 62/100 — 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 52,550 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $44,820 |
| 25th | $51,110 |
| 50th (median) | $62,120 |
| 75th | $79,350 |
| 90th | $100,010 |
| Mean (average) | $68,280 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MN | $95,220 | $96,551 | 1,040 |
| MA | $94,950 | $89,781 | 1,570 |
| IL | $89,980 | $90,018 | 2,490 |
| NY | $84,410 | $78,215 | 3,790 |
| WA | $83,190 | $77,738 | 600 |
| WI | $80,120 | $85,148 | 1,050 |
| ND | $79,940 | $89,862 | 150 |
| OR | $79,450 | $76,867 | 650 |
| RI | $79,280 | $77,513 | 220 |
| HI | $79,250 | $72,078 | 120 |
| NJ | $77,010 | $70,778 | 520 |
| IN | $73,110 | $78,336 | 1,770 |
| MO | $72,370 | $79,688 | 1,940 |
| OH | $70,950 | $76,476 | 2,770 |
| PA | $69,560 | $71,291 | 2,910 |

37 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 52 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/brickmason-and-blockmason/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/brickmason-and-blockmason.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 62,400 in the 2025–2035 base year to 63,100 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 700 jobs, or +1.1%. Slower than average: 1.1% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 4,100 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) | 70.4% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 13.5% |
| Some College Courses | 13.4% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 2.7% |

## What the work involves

- Measure distance from reference points and mark guidelines to lay out work, using plumb bobs and levels.
- Calculate angles and courses and determine vertical and horizontal alignment of courses.
- Construct corners by fastening in plumb position a corner pole or building a corner pyramid of bricks, and filling in between the corners using a line from corner to corner to guide each course, or layer, of brick.
- Examine brickwork or structure to determine need for repair.
- Break or cut bricks, tiles, or blocks to size, using trowel edge, hammer, or power saw.
- Remove excess mortar with trowels and hand tools, and finish mortar joints with jointing tools, for a sealed, uniform appearance.
- Interpret blueprints and drawings to determine specifications and to calculate the materials required.
- Clean working surface to remove scale, dust, soot, or chips of brick and mortar, using broom, wire brush, or scraper.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Critical Thinking — importance 3.1 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
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.3 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.

- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Selection — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Building and Construction — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Design — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Trunk Strength — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Extent Flexibility — 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
- Static Strength — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — 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 | 6.95 |
| C — Conventional | 3.82 |
| I — Investigative | 2.02 |
| A — Artistic | 1.67 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.21 |
| S — Social | 1.11 |

### 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 | 86.3 |
| ISTP | 77.1 |
| ISFJ | 71.7 |
| ESTJ | 69.5 |
| INTJ | 65.7 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ. The bank also flags this occupation as introvert-friendly, meaning O\*NET work-context ratings put it low on public contact and performing for the public.

## Related occupations

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

- [Helpers--Brickmason, Blockmason, Stonemason, and Tile and Marble Setter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/helpers-brickmason-blockmason-stonemason-and-tile-and-marble-setter) — median $47,550
- [Refractory Materials Repairer, Except Brickmasons](https://nuecareer.com/careers/refractory-materials-repairer) — median $61,290
- [Stonemason](https://nuecareer.com/careers/stonemason) — median $57,390
- [Tile and Stone Setter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/tile-and-stone-setter) — median $55,690
- [Cement Mason and Concrete Finisher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cement-mason-and-concrete-finisher) — median $57,020
- [Terrazzo Worker and Finisher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/terrazzo-worker-and-finisher) — median $76,170
- [Carpenter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/carpenter) — median $60,580
- [Floor Layer, Except Carpet, Wood, and Hard Tiles](https://nuecareer.com/careers/floor-layer) — median $56,460
- [Insulation Worker, Floor, Ceiling, and Wall](https://nuecareer.com/careers/insulation-worker-floor-ceiling-and-wall) — median $49,120
- [Construction Laborer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/construction-laborer) — median $47,120

## 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/brickmason-and-blockmason