---
title: "Gem and Diamond Worker"
description: "Fabricate, finish, or evaluate the quality of gems and diamonds used in jewelry or industrial tools."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/gem-and-diamond-worker"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Gem and Diamond Worker

**Category:** Production · **SOC code:** 51-9071 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 51-9071.06

Fabricate, finish, or evaluate the quality of gems and diamonds used in jewelry or industrial tools.

Also advertised as: Diamond Cutter; Diamond Grader; Diamond Picker; Diamond Polisher; Diamond Setter; Facetor; Gem Carver; Gemologist.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $52,540 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $25.26/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $35,580 to $87,540, with the middle half between $39,520 and $69,810
- **Total US employment:** 22,440
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -3.2% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 3,700 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 34/100 — 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 22,440 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $35,580 |
| 25th | $39,520 |
| 50th (median) | $52,540 |
| 75th | $69,810 |
| 90th | $87,540 |
| Mean (average) | $57,960 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CT | $69,800 | $67,368 | 140 |
| VA | $61,940 | $61,264 | 240 |
| NY | $61,720 | $57,190 | 4,300 |
| CA | $60,790 | $54,904 | 2,300 |
| SC | $60,380 | $64,406 | 200 |
| WA | $60,380 | $56,423 | 290 |
| NJ | $59,480 | $54,667 | 780 |
| VT | $58,570 | $59,791 | 50 |
| KS | $57,730 | $64,096 | 110 |
| CO | $57,120 | $55,428 | 220 |
| ND | $57,020 | $64,097 | 50 |
| MI | $56,610 | $58,836 | 460 |
| MO | $56,140 | $61,817 | 490 |
| WI | $55,830 | $59,334 | 280 |
| NC | $55,420 | $58,754 | 770 |

32 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 47 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/gem-and-diamond-worker/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/gem-and-diamond-worker.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 32,800 in the 2025–2035 base year to 31,800 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 1,100 jobs, or -3.2%. Declining: -3.2% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 3,700 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:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Long-term on-the-job training.

## What the work involves

- Advise customers and others on the best use of gems to create attractive jewelry items.
- Examine gem surfaces and internal structures, using polariscopes, refractometers, microscopes, and other optical instruments, to differentiate between stones, to identify rare specimens, or to detect flaws, defects, or peculiarities affecting gem values.
- Estimate wholesale and retail value of gems, following pricing guides, market fluctuations, and other relevant economic factors.
- Examine diamonds or gems to ascertain the shape, cut, and width of cut stones, or to select the cuts that will result in the biggest, best quality stones.
- Examine gems during processing to ensure accuracy of angles and positions of cuts or bores, using magnifying glasses, loupes, or shadowgraphs.
- Locate and mark drilling or cutting positions on stones or dies, using diamond chips and power hand tools.
- Select shaping wheels for tasks, and mix and apply abrasives, bort, or polishing compounds.
- Assign polish, symmetry, and clarity grades to stones, according to established grading systems.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- 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
- 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
- Speaking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.8 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.

- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.4 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 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — 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 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sales and Marketing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Economics and Accounting — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Near Vision — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Finger Dexterity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Visual Color Discrimination — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Category Flexibility — 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), Investigative (I).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 5.46 |
| C — Conventional | 4.11 |
| I — Investigative | 3.09 |
| A — Artistic | 2.88 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.14 |
| S — Social | 1.15 |

### 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 | 88.6 |
| ISTP | 81.9 |
| INTJ | 75.9 |
| ESTJ | 66.9 |
| ISFJ | 66.5 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Jeweler and Precious Stone and Metal Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/jeweler-and-precious-stone-and-metal-worker) — median $52,540
- [Grinding and Polishing Worker, Hand](https://nuecareer.com/careers/grinding-and-polishing-worker-hand) — median $42,660
- [Etcher and Engraver](https://nuecareer.com/careers/etcher-and-engraver) — median $43,310
- [Tool Grinder, Filer, and Sharpener](https://nuecareer.com/careers/tool-grinder-filer-and-sharpener) — median $50,060
- [Stone Cutter and Carver, Manufacturing](https://nuecareer.com/careers/stone-cutter-and-carver-manufacturing) — median $46,170
- [Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setter, Operator, and Tender, Metal and Plastic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/grinding-lapping-polishing-and-buffing-machine-tool-setter-operator-and-tender-metal-and-plastic) — median $46,550
- [Cutting and Slicing Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cutting-and-slicing-machine-setter-operator-and-tender) — median $46,570
- [Cutter and Trimmer, Hand](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cutter-and-trimmer-hand) — median $38,020
- [Tool and Die Maker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/tool-and-die-maker) — median $64,050
- [Molder, Shaper, and Caster, Except Metal and Plastic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/molder-shaper-and-caster) — median $46,170

## 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/gem-and-diamond-worker