---
title: "First-Line Supervisor of Production and Operating Workers"
description: "Directly supervise and coordinate the activities of production and operating workers, such as inspectors, precision workers, machine setters and…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-production-and-operating-workers"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# First-Line Supervisor of Production and Operating Workers

**Category:** Production · **SOC code:** 51-1011 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 51-1011.00

Directly supervise and coordinate the activities of production and operating workers, such as inspectors, precision workers, machine setters and operators, assemblers, fabricators, and plant and system operators. Excludes team or work leaders.

Also advertised as: Assembly Supervisor; Line Supervisor; Manufacturing Supervisor; Molding Supervisor; Plant Supervisor; Production Manager; Production Supervisor; Quality Assurance Supervisor (QA Supervisor).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $74,450 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $35.79/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $47,130 to $108,750, with the middle half between $58,630 and $91,680
- **Total US employment:** 673,430
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +1.8% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 61,000 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 52/100 — 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 673,430 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $47,130 |
| 25th | $58,630 |
| 50th (median) | $74,450 |
| 75th | $91,680 |
| 90th | $108,750 |
| Mean (average) | $76,600 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WY | $90,390 | $97,518 | 1,470 |
| CT | $83,150 | $80,253 | 9,150 |
| RI | $81,650 | $79,830 | 2,660 |
| NJ | $81,110 | $74,546 | 15,040 |
| DC | $80,030 | $72,820 | 350 |
| MA | $79,920 | $75,569 | 12,390 |
| NH | $79,310 | $76,139 | 3,000 |
| WA | $79,310 | $74,112 | 14,500 |
| DE | $79,100 | $79,252 | 1,450 |
| ME | $78,970 | $81,370 | 2,970 |
| CO | $78,890 | $76,554 | 9,580 |
| NY | $78,580 | $72,813 | 20,830 |
| MN | $78,550 | $79,648 | 13,380 |
| MD | $78,520 | $74,810 | 6,100 |
| AK | $77,960 | $76,163 | 1,110 |

39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-production-and-operating-workers/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-production-and-operating-workers.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 679,900 in the 2025–2035 base year to 692,300 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 12,400 jobs, or +1.8%. Slower than average: 1.8% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 61,000 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:** Less than 5 years.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### 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) | 32.8% |
| Some College Courses | 15.0% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 14.2% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 13.6% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 12.0% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 11.6% |

## What the work involves

- Confer with management or subordinates to resolve worker problems, complaints, or grievances.
- Enforce safety and sanitation regulations.
- Recommend or implement measures to motivate employees and to improve production methods, equipment performance, product quality, or efficiency.
- Evaluate employee performance.
- Plan and establish work schedules, assignments, and production sequences to meet production goals.
- Confer with other supervisors to coordinate operations and activities within or between departments.
- Inspect materials, products, or equipment to detect defects or malfunctions.
- Conduct employee training in equipment operations or work and safety procedures, or assign employee training to experienced workers.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.1 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.

- Time Management — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Personnel Resources — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Production and Processing — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Personnel and Human Resources — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — 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 Enterprising (E), Conventional (C), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| E — Enterprising | 6.30 |
| C — Conventional | 5.05 |
| R — Realistic | 4.30 |
| S — Social | 2.87 |
| I — Investigative | 1.58 |
| 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) |
| --- | --- |
| ESTJ | 88.5 |
| ESFJ | 80.5 |
| ISTJ | 71.8 |
| ISFJ | 68.0 |
| ESTP | 64.8 |

Best-fitting types: ESTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [First-Line Supervisor of Mechanics, Installers, and Repairers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-mechanics-installers-and-repairers) — median $79,860
- [First-Line Supervisor of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-construction-trades-and-extraction-workers) — median $79,920
- [First-Line Supervisor of Helpers, Laborers, and Material Movers, Hand](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-helpers-laborers-and-material-movers-hand) — median $62,840
- [First-Line Supervisor of Material-Moving Machine and Vehicle Operators](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-material-moving-machine-and-vehicle-operators) — median $62,840
- [First-Line Supervisor of Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-farming-fishing-and-forestry-workers) — median $59,320
- [First-Line Supervisor of Office and Administrative Support Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-office-and-administrative-support-workers) — median $69,500
- [First-Line Supervisor of Passenger Attendants](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-passenger-attendants) — median $62,840
- [First-Line Supervisor of Housekeeping and Janitorial Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-housekeeping-and-janitorial-workers) — median $49,100
- [First-Line Supervisor of Food Preparation and Serving Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-food-preparation-and-serving-workers) — median $44,080
- [First-Line Supervisor of Security Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-security-workers) — median $55,940

## 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/first-line-supervisor-of-production-and-operating-workers