---
title: "Fence Erector"
description: "Erect and repair fences and fence gates, using hand and power tools."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/fence-erector"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Fence Erector

**Category:** Construction and Extraction · **SOC code:** 47-4031 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 47-4031.00

Erect and repair fences and fence gates, using hand and power tools.

Also advertised as: Fence Builder; Fence Contractor; Fence Erector; Fence Installer; Fence Laborer; Fence Mechanic; Fence Technician (Fence Tech); Gate Technician (Gate Tech).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $47,980 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $23.07/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $35,810 to $70,010, with the middle half between $40,400 and $58,610
- **Total US employment:** 24,480
- **Typical entry education:** No formal credential
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +5.6% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 2,500 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 66/100 — 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 24,480 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $35,810 |
| 25th | $40,400 |
| 50th (median) | $47,980 |
| 75th | $58,610 |
| 90th | $70,010 |
| Mean (average) | $50,530 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| AK | $64,600 | $63,111 | 40 |
| PA | $58,600 | $60,058 | 1,150 |
| MN | $57,260 | $58,061 | Not published by BLS |
| NJ | $56,690 | $52,102 | 910 |
| CA | $56,060 | $50,632 | 3,150 |
| MT | $55,720 | $58,873 | 680 |
| CT | $53,180 | $51,327 | 300 |
| IA | $52,510 | $59,832 | 290 |
| WA | $51,860 | $48,461 | 1,450 |
| LA | $51,770 | $58,691 | 120 |
| WI | $51,410 | $54,636 | 200 |
| NH | $50,850 | $48,817 | 160 |
| IL | $50,710 | $50,731 | 690 |
| DE | $50,630 | $50,727 | Not published by BLS |
| NE | $50,120 | $55,625 | 190 |

30 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 45 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/fence-erector/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/fence-erector.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 30,600 in the 2025–2035 base year to 32,300 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 1,700 jobs, or +5.6%. Faster than average: 5.6% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 2,500 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:** No formal educational credential (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) | 47.5% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 29.4% |
| Some College Courses | 22.1% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 1.0% |

## What the work involves

- Assemble gates, and fasten gates into position, using hand tools.
- Establish the location for a fence, and gather information needed to ensure that there are no electric cables or water lines in the area.
- Make rails for fences, by sawing lumber or by cutting metal tubing to required lengths.
- Set metal or wooden posts in upright positions in postholes.
- Measure and lay out fence lines and mark posthole positions, following instructions, drawings, or specifications.
- Mix and pour concrete around bases of posts, or tamp soil into postholes to embed posts.
- Dig postholes, using spades, posthole diggers, or power-driven augers.
- Stretch wire, wire mesh, or chain link fencing between posts, and attach fencing to frames.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- 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
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — 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 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — 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 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Selection — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Building and Construction — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Transportation — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Design — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Manual Dexterity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Trunk Strength — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Multilimb Coordination — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Static Strength — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Finger Dexterity — 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 | 3.68 |
| I — Investigative | 2.08 |
| A — Artistic | 1.35 |
| S — Social | 1.35 |
| 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 | 86.2 |
| ISTP | 76.7 |
| ISFJ | 72.7 |
| ESTJ | 69.5 |
| INTJ | 64.7 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Carpenter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/carpenter) — median $60,580
- [Structural Iron and Steel Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/structural-iron-and-steel-worker) — median $62,780
- [Reinforcing Iron and Rebar Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/reinforcing-iron-and-rebar-worker) — median $58,970
- [Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/drywall-and-ceiling-tile-installer) — median $58,930
- [Electrical Power-Line Installer and Repairer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-power-line-installer-and-repairer) — median $95,320
- [Helpers--Pipelayer, Plumber, Pipefitter, and Steamfitter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/helpers-pipelayer-plumber-pipefitter-and-steamfitter) — median $42,360
- [Cement Mason and Concrete Finisher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cement-mason-and-concrete-finisher) — median $57,020
- [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
- [Structural Metal Fabricator and Fitter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/structural-metal-fabricator-and-fitter) — median $51,330

## 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/fence-erector