---
title: "Entertainment Rigger"
description: "Hangs the lights, speakers, video walls and scenery for concerts, arena shows and theatres from overhead steel, safely and against the clock."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/entertainment-rigger"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Entertainment Rigger

**Category:** Installation, Maintenance, and Repair · **SOC code:** 49-9096 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 49-9096.00

Hangs the lights, speakers, video walls and scenery for concerts, arena shows and theatres from overhead steel, safely and against the clock.

Also advertised as: Arena Rigger; Theatre Rigger; Concert Rigger; Head Rigger; Production Rigger.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $62,640 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $30.12/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $40,680 to $97,850, with the middle half between $48,210 and $80,180
- **Total US employment:** 22,530
- **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:** +3.9% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 1,700 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 22,530 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $40,680 |
| 25th | $48,210 |
| 50th (median) | $62,640 |
| 75th | $80,180 |
| 90th | $97,850 |
| Mean (average) | $66,810 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NY | $105,600 | $97,849 | 650 |
| OR | $94,470 | $91,398 | 290 |
| UT | $93,640 | $94,716 | 490 |
| MD | $91,420 | $87,101 | 230 |
| MN | $87,120 | $88,338 | 190 |
| CA | $85,730 | $77,430 | 2,260 |
| HI | $84,410 | $76,771 | 170 |
| NJ | $82,130 | $75,484 | 200 |
| IL | $81,860 | $81,894 | 120 |
| NV | $81,720 | $81,737 | 860 |
| ND | $77,890 | $87,557 | 140 |
| WA | $77,100 | $72,047 | 910 |
| CO | $73,720 | $71,537 | 310 |
| ID | $72,850 | $76,288 | 60 |
| CT | $67,560 | $65,206 | 350 |

28 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 43 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/entertainment-rigger/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/entertainment-rigger.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 22,500 in the 2025–2035 base year to 23,400 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 900 jobs, or +3.9%. About as fast as average: 3.9% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 1,700 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:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

### 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) | 62.9% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 21.2% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 16.0% |

## What the work involves

- Read rigging plots and mark hanging points on venue floors
- Climb roof steel and hang chain motors and spansets
- Assemble bridles, truss and hardware for suspended equipment
- Calculate loads, bridle angles and point capacities
- Operate counterweight and motorized fly systems in theatres
- Inspect rigging hardware before and after use
- Coordinate lifts with lighting, audio and video crews
- Take down rigging safely during load-out

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — 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
- Active Learning — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 1.6 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.

- Operation and Control — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — 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
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Selection — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Mechanical — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Design — 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
- Control Precision — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Multilimb Coordination — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Depth Perception — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.3 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 | 4.47 |
| A — Artistic | 2.73 |
| I — Investigative | 2.37 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.95 |
| S — Social | 1.02 |

### 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 | 86.1 |
| ISTP | 77.7 |
| ISFJ | 69.3 |
| ESTJ | 68.7 |
| INTJ | 68.3 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Rigger](https://nuecareer.com/careers/rigger) — median $62,640
- [Hoist and Winch Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/hoist-and-winch-operator) — median $56,450
- [Crane and Tower Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/crane-and-tower-operator) — median $68,080
- [Mobile Heavy Equipment Mechanic, Except Engines](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mobile-heavy-equipment-mechanic) — median $65,510
- [Industrial Truck and Tractor Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/industrial-truck-and-tractor-operator) — median $46,420
- [Millwright](https://nuecareer.com/careers/millwright) — median $65,700
- [Aircraft Structure, Surface, Rigging, and Systems Assembler](https://nuecareer.com/careers/aircraft-structure-surface-rigging-and-systems-assembler) — median $65,380
- [Operating Engineer and Other Construction Equipment Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/operating-engineer-and-other-construction-equipment-operator) — median $59,850
- [Structural Iron and Steel Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/structural-iron-and-steel-worker) — median $62,780
- [Maintenance Worker, Machinery](https://nuecareer.com/careers/maintenance-worker-machinery) — median $60,850

## 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/
- **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/entertainment-rigger