---
title: "Foundry Mold and Coremaker"
description: "Make or form wax or sand cores or molds used in the production of metal castings in foundries."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/foundry-mold-and-coremaker"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Foundry Mold and Coremaker

**Category:** Production · **SOC code:** 51-4071 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 51-4071.00

Make or form wax or sand cores or molds used in the production of metal castings in foundries.

Also advertised as: Core Machine Operator; Core Maker; Core Stripper; Coremaker; Green Sand Molder; Mold Maker; Mold Operator; Molder.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $48,110 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $23.13/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $37,160 to $62,640, with the middle half between $41,870 and $57,350
- **Total US employment:** 12,790
- **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:** -23.0% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 800 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 51/100 — 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 12,790 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $37,160 |
| 25th | $41,870 |
| 50th (median) | $48,110 |
| 75th | $57,350 |
| 90th | $62,640 |
| Mean (average) | $49,860 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| OR | $67,060 | $64,879 | 270 |
| MO | $61,480 | $67,697 | 590 |
| IL | $57,110 | $57,134 | 390 |
| MN | $56,840 | $57,635 | 470 |
| MA | $55,940 | $52,895 | 60 |
| NJ | $55,210 | $50,742 | 330 |
| NY | $54,380 | $50,389 | 110 |
| AL | $51,040 | $57,463 | 850 |
| IN | $49,860 | $53,424 | 720 |
| IA | $49,060 | $55,901 | 480 |
| OH | $49,040 | $52,860 | 980 |
| WA | $48,440 | $45,266 | 160 |
| KS | $47,910 | $53,193 | 150 |
| CT | $47,310 | $45,662 | 110 |
| CA | $46,930 | $42,386 | 420 |

18 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 33 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/foundry-mold-and-coremaker/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/foundry-mold-and-coremaker.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 12,700 in the 2025–2035 base year to 9,800 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 2,900 jobs, or -23.0%. Declining: -23.0% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 800 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) | 64.4% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 35.6% |

## What the work involves

- Clean and smooth molds, cores, and core boxes, and repair surface imperfections.
- Move and position workpieces, such as mold sections, patterns, and bottom boards, using cranes, or signal others to move workpieces.
- Sprinkle or spray parting agents onto patterns and mold sections to facilitate removal of patterns from molds.
- Sift and pack sand into mold sections, core boxes, and pattern contours, using hand or pneumatic ramming tools.
- Cut spouts, runner holes, and sprue holes into molds.
- Lift upper mold sections from lower sections, and remove molded patterns.
- Position patterns inside mold sections, and clamp sections together.
- Position cores into lower sections of molds, and reassemble molds for pouring.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.0 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 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- English Language — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Physics — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Trunk Strength — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Manual Dexterity — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Static Strength — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Finger Dexterity — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Multilimb Coordination — 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 | 6.82 |
| C — Conventional | 3.50 |
| I — Investigative | 2.27 |
| A — Artistic | 2.14 |
| S — Social | 1.05 |
| 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 | 84.4 |
| ISTP | 78.9 |
| ISFJ | 69.0 |
| INTJ | 68.1 |
| ESTJ | 65.1 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Molder, Shaper, and Caster, Except Metal and Plastic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/molder-shaper-and-caster) — median $46,170
- [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
- [Fiberglass Laminator and Fabricator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fiberglass-laminator-and-fabricator) — median $46,880
- [Grinding and Polishing Worker, Hand](https://nuecareer.com/careers/grinding-and-polishing-worker-hand) — median $42,660
- [Refractory Materials Repairer, Except Brickmasons](https://nuecareer.com/careers/refractory-materials-repairer) — median $61,290
- [Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/extruding-forming-pressing-and-compacting-machine-setter-operator-and-tender) — median $45,760
- [Woodworking Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender, Except Sawing](https://nuecareer.com/careers/woodworking-machine-setter-operator-and-tender) — median $43,380
- [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
- [Cutting and Slicing Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cutting-and-slicing-machine-setter-operator-and-tender) — median $46,570
- [Forging Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender, Metal and Plastic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/forging-machine-setter-operator-and-tender-metal-and-plastic) — median $49,030

## 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/foundry-mold-and-coremaker