---
title: "Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender"
description: "Set up, operate, or tend machines, such as glass-forming machines, plodder machines, and tuber machines, to shape and form products such as glassware…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/extruding-forming-pressing-and-compacting-machine-setter-operator-and-tender"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender

**Category:** Production · **SOC code:** 51-9041 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 51-9041.00

Set up, operate, or tend machines, such as glass-forming machines, plodder machines, and tuber machines, to shape and form products such as glassware, food, rubber, soap, brick, tile, clay, wax, tobacco, or cosmetics.

Also advertised as: Extruder Operator; Extrusion Operator; Glass Forming Crew Member; Machine Operator; Press Operator; Tuber Operator.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $45,760 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $22.00/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $34,630 to $63,450, with the middle half between $38,360 and $52,580
- **Total US employment:** 58,770
- **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:** +1.5% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 5,200 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 46/100 — 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 58,770 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $34,630 |
| 25th | $38,360 |
| 50th (median) | $45,760 |
| 75th | $52,580 |
| 90th | $63,450 |
| Mean (average) | $47,260 |

### 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 | $57,990 | $59,753 | 140 |
| PA | $53,580 | $54,913 | 2,450 |
| VT | $52,340 | $53,431 | 160 |
| MN | $52,070 | $52,798 | 560 |
| SC | $51,620 | $55,062 | 2,460 |
| WV | $50,690 | $56,639 | 180 |
| NV | $50,050 | $50,061 | Not published by BLS |
| VA | $49,390 | $48,851 | 1,810 |
| IA | $49,340 | $56,220 | 500 |
| CO | $49,100 | $47,646 | 280 |
| UT | $49,100 | $49,664 | 250 |
| NE | $48,760 | $54,116 | 750 |
| OR | $48,360 | $46,787 | 370 |
| AR | $48,320 | $55,580 | 2,190 |
| NH | $47,730 | $45,822 | 410 |

31 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 46 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/extruding-forming-pressing-and-compacting-machine-setter-operator-and-tender/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/extruding-forming-pressing-and-compacting-machine-setter-operator-and-tender.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 58,300 in the 2025–2035 base year to 59,200 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 900 jobs, or +1.5%. Slower than average: 1.5% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 5,200 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) | 78.2% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 9.1% |
| Some College Courses | 7.8% |
| First Professional Degree | 3.9% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 0.7% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 0.3% |

## What the work involves

- Press control buttons to activate machinery and equipment.
- Monitor machine operations and observe lights and gauges to detect malfunctions.
- Record and maintain production data, such as meter readings, and quantities, types, and dimensions of materials produced.
- Examine, measure, and weigh materials or products to verify conformance to standards, using measuring devices such as templates, micrometers, or scales.
- Adjust machine components to regulate speeds, pressures, and temperatures, and amounts, dimensions, and flow of materials or ingredients.
- Turn controls to adjust machine functions, such as regulating air pressure, creating vacuums, and adjusting coolant flow.
- Clear jams, and remove defective or substandard materials or products.
- Notify supervisors when extruded filaments fail to meet standards.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Monitoring — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.1 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
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.1 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 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — 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
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.9 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
- Coordination — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Production and Processing — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Engineering and Technology — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Food Production — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Perceptual Speed — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Rate Control — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reaction Time — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Manual Dexterity — importance 3.4 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 | 6.54 |
| C — Conventional | 4.30 |
| I — Investigative | 2.23 |
| A — Artistic | 1.28 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.25 |
| S — Social | 1.04 |

### 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 | 90.0 |
| ISTP | 77.4 |
| ISFJ | 74.5 |
| ESTJ | 72.9 |
| INTJ | 67.0 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Extruding and Forming Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender, Synthetic and Glass Fiber](https://nuecareer.com/careers/extruding-and-forming-machine-setter-operator-and-tender-synthetic-and-glass-fiber) — median $46,350
- [Machine Feeder and Offbearer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/machine-feeder-and-offbearer) — median $41,220
- [Cutting and Slicing Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cutting-and-slicing-machine-setter-operator-and-tender) — median $46,570
- [Paper Goods Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/paper-goods-machine-setter-operator-and-tender) — median $50,270
- [Adhesive Bonding Machine Operator and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/adhesive-bonding-machine-operator-and-tender) — median $46,460
- [Rolling Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender, Metal and Plastic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/rolling-machine-setter-operator-and-tender-metal-and-plastic) — median $50,140
- [Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender, Metal and Plastic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/molding-coremaking-and-casting-machine-setter-operator-and-tender-metal-and-plastic) — median $44,350
- [Packaging and Filling Machine Operator and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/packaging-and-filling-machine-operator-and-tender) — median $43,220
- [Woodworking Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender, Except Sawing](https://nuecareer.com/careers/woodworking-machine-setter-operator-and-tender) — median $43,380
- [Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/crushing-grinding-and-polishing-machine-setter-operator-and-tender) — median $48,540

## 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/extruding-forming-pressing-and-compacting-machine-setter-operator-and-tender