---
title: "Helpers--Extraction Worker"
description: "Help extraction craft workers, such as earth drillers, blasters and explosives workers, derrick operators, and mining machine operators, by performing…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/helpers-extraction-worker"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Helpers--Extraction Worker

**Category:** Construction and Extraction · **SOC code:** 47-5081 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 47-5081.00

Help extraction craft workers, such as earth drillers, blasters and explosives workers, derrick operators, and mining machine operators, by performing duties requiring less skill. Duties include supplying equipment or cleaning work area.

Also advertised as: Continuous Miner Operator Helper; Driller Helper; Driller's Assistant; Longwall Machine Operator Helper; Miner Helper; Powderman; Salt Miner.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $47,730 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $22.95/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $36,960 to $68,020, with the middle half between $41,430 and $57,920
- **Total US employment:** 6,700
- **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:** +1.7% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 700 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 74/100 — 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 6,700 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $36,960 |
| 25th | $41,430 |
| 50th (median) | $47,730 |
| 75th | $57,920 |
| 90th | $68,020 |
| Mean (average) | $50,620 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WV | $77,180 | $86,238 | 360 |
| KY | $68,020 | $75,444 | 230 |
| UT | $55,490 | $56,128 | Not published by BLS |
| WY | $55,240 | $59,596 | 110 |
| NY | $54,910 | $50,880 | 210 |
| NM | $54,840 | $59,472 | 130 |
| NH | $54,700 | $52,513 | 30 |
| NJ | $53,820 | $49,465 | Not published by BLS |
| CA | $51,720 | $46,712 | 1,170 |
| MD | $51,020 | $48,609 | 80 |
| VA | $50,350 | $49,800 | 90 |
| IN | $49,490 | $53,027 | 140 |
| AZ | $49,070 | $48,740 | Not published by BLS |
| AK | $48,820 | $47,695 | 80 |
| PA | $48,290 | $49,492 | 370 |

11 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 26 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/helpers-extraction-worker/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/helpers-extraction-worker.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 7,100 in the 2025–2035 base year to 7,200 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 100 jobs, or +1.7%. Slower than average: 1.7% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 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:** 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) | 96.6% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 1.7% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 1.7% |

## What the work involves

- Organize materials to prepare for use.
- Observe and monitor equipment operation during the extraction process to detect any problems.
- Clean up work areas and remove debris after extraction activities are complete.
- Unload materials, devices, and machine parts, using hand tools.
- Load materials into well holes or into equipment, using hand tools.
- Drive moving equipment to transport materials and parts to excavation sites.
- Set up and adjust equipment used to excavate geological materials.
- Repair and maintain automotive and drilling equipment, using hand tools.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Monitoring — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.5 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 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Maintenance — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Repairing — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Selection — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Mechanical — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Transportation — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Manual Dexterity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Control Precision — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Multilimb Coordination — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reaction Time — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.6 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 | 3.69 |
| I — Investigative | 2.14 |
| S — Social | 1.79 |
| E — Enterprising | 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) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 86.4 |
| ISTP | 74.6 |
| ISFJ | 73.8 |
| ESTJ | 72.8 |
| INTJ | 61.9 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Helpers--Installation, Maintenance, and Repair Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/helpers-installation-maintenance-and-repair-worker) — median $39,630
- [Helpers--Production Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/helpers-production-worker) — median $39,070
- [Rotary Drill Operator, Oil and Gas](https://nuecareer.com/careers/rotary-drill-operator-oil-and-gas) — median $67,890
- [Earth Driller, Except Oil and Gas](https://nuecareer.com/careers/earth-driller) — median $60,190
- [Helpers--Carpenter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/helpers-carpenter) — median $43,780
- [Helpers--Pipelayer, Plumber, Pipefitter, and Steamfitter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/helpers-pipelayer-plumber-pipefitter-and-steamfitter) — median $42,360
- [Continuous Mining Machine Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/continuous-mining-machine-operator) — median $61,810
- [Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operator, Surface Mining](https://nuecareer.com/careers/excavating-and-loading-machine-and-dragline-operator-surface-mining) — median $57,430
- [Helpers--Painter, Paperhanger, Plasterer, and Stucco Mason](https://nuecareer.com/careers/helpers-painter-paperhanger-plasterer-and-stucco-mason) — median $40,470
- [Helpers--Brickmason, Blockmason, Stonemason, and Tile and Marble Setter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/helpers-brickmason-blockmason-stonemason-and-tile-and-marble-setter) — median $47,550

## 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/helpers-extraction-worker