---
title: "Elevator Installer"
description: "Assemble, install, repair, or maintain electric or hydraulic freight or passenger elevators, escalators, or dumbwaiters."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/elevator-installer"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Elevator Installer

**Category:** Construction and Extraction · **SOC code:** 47-4021 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 47-4021.00

Assemble, install, repair, or maintain electric or hydraulic freight or passenger elevators, escalators, or dumbwaiters.

Also advertised as: Elevator Adjuster; Elevator Constructor; Elevator Installer; Elevator Mechanic; Elevator Repair and Maintenance Technician (Elevator Repair and Maintenance Tech); Elevator Service Mechanic; Elevator Service Technician (Elevator Service Tech); Elevator Serviceman.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $109,910 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $52.84/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $59,270 to $158,890, with the middle half between $79,290 and $135,720
- **Total US employment:** 23,790
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +5.7% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 1,900 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 58/100 — 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 23,790 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $59,270 |
| 25th | $79,290 |
| 50th (median) | $109,910 |
| 75th | $135,720 |
| 90th | $158,890 |
| Mean (average) | $109,820 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ME | $143,690 | $148,058 | 110 |
| NV | $141,950 | $141,980 | 510 |
| CA | $141,180 | $127,511 | 1,910 |
| OR | $138,600 | $134,093 | 230 |
| MA | $138,420 | $130,885 | Not published by BLS |
| NJ | $137,920 | $126,759 | 800 |
| WA | $137,180 | $128,190 | 540 |
| NY | $135,720 | $125,759 | 3,470 |
| IL | $133,690 | $133,746 | 1,080 |
| MN | $128,020 | $129,810 | 550 |
| MO | $126,750 | $139,566 | 450 |
| CO | $123,360 | $119,707 | 530 |
| DC | $122,570 | $111,528 | Not published by BLS |
| MD | $122,260 | $116,484 | 810 |
| NE | $117,690 | $130,617 | 140 |

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

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 24,700 in the 2025–2035 base year to 26,100 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 1,400 jobs, or +5.7%. Faster than average: 5.7% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 1,900 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:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium 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) | 47.5% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 47.1% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 4.5% |
| Some College Courses | 0.5% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 0.3% |

## What the work involves

- Inspect wiring connections, control panel hookups, door installations, and alignments and clearances of cars and hoistways to ensure that equipment will operate properly.
- Locate malfunctions in brakes, motors, switches, and signal and control systems, using test equipment.
- Participate in additional training to keep skills up to date.
- Maintain log books that detail all repairs and checks performed.
- Adjust safety controls, counterweights, door mechanisms, and components such as valves, ratchets, seals, and brake linings.
- Disassemble defective units, and repair or replace parts such as locks, gears, cables, and electric wiring.
- Connect electrical wiring to control panels and electric motors.
- Test newly installed equipment to ensure that it meets specifications, such as stopping at floors for set amounts of time.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Critical Thinking — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.4 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.

- Equipment Maintenance — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Repairing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Installation — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Selection — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Mechanical — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Building and Construction — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Manual Dexterity — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.5 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 | 3.92 |
| I — Investigative | 2.44 |
| S — Social | 1.38 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.22 |
| A — Artistic | 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 | 88.5 |
| ISTP | 77.4 |
| ISFJ | 73.7 |
| ESTJ | 72.0 |
| INTJ | 65.8 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Maintenance and Repair Worker, General](https://nuecareer.com/careers/maintenance-and-repair-worker-general) — median $49,590
- [Mobile Heavy Equipment Mechanic, Except Engines](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mobile-heavy-equipment-mechanic) — median $65,510
- [Millwright](https://nuecareer.com/careers/millwright) — median $65,700
- [Rail Car Repairer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/rail-car-repairer) — median $67,530
- [Mechanical Door Repairer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mechanical-door-repairer) — median $55,720
- [Aircraft Structure, Surface, Rigging, and Systems Assembler](https://nuecareer.com/careers/aircraft-structure-surface-rigging-and-systems-assembler) — median $65,380
- [Engine and Other Machine Assembler](https://nuecareer.com/careers/engine-and-other-machine-assembler) — median $53,710
- [Industrial Machinery Mechanic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/industrial-machinery-mechanic) — median $64,520
- [Electrical and Electronics Installer and Repairer, Transportation Equipment](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-and-electronics-installer-and-repairer-transportation-equipment) — median $84,890
- [Structural Iron and Steel Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/structural-iron-and-steel-worker) — median $62,780

## 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/elevator-installer