---
title: "Helpers--Installation, Maintenance, and Repair Worker"
description: "Help installation, maintenance, and repair workers in maintenance, parts replacement, and repair of vehicles, industrial machinery, and electrical and…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/helpers-installation-maintenance-and-repair-worker"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Helpers--Installation, Maintenance, and Repair Worker

**Category:** Installation, Maintenance, and Repair · **SOC code:** 49-9098 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 49-9098.00

Help installation, maintenance, and repair workers in maintenance, parts replacement, and repair of vehicles, industrial machinery, and electrical and electronic equipment. Perform duties such as furnishing tools, materials, and supplies to other workers; cleaning work area, machines, and tools; and holding materials or tools for other workers.

Also advertised as: HVAC Helper (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning Helper); HVAC Installation Helper (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning Installation Helper); Maintenance Aide; Maintenance Helper; Mechanic Helper; Mechanic Repair Helper; Mechanic's Assistant; Technician's Helper.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $39,630 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $19.05/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $29,310 to $55,890, with the middle half between $34,910 and $46,890
- **Total US employment:** 95,580
- **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:** +5.3% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 13,600 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 65/100 — 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 95,580 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $29,310 |
| 25th | $34,910 |
| 50th (median) | $39,630 |
| 75th | $46,890 |
| 90th | $55,890 |
| Mean (average) | $41,490 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DC | $54,860 | $49,918 | 110 |
| HI | $46,320 | $42,128 | 660 |
| WA | $46,080 | $43,060 | 1,110 |
| NH | $45,760 | $43,930 | 560 |
| AK | $45,740 | $44,686 | 550 |
| CO | $45,610 | $44,259 | 1,190 |
| AZ | $45,560 | $45,254 | 1,770 |
| RI | $45,240 | $44,232 | 140 |
| MN | $44,950 | $45,579 | 1,110 |
| ND | $44,710 | $50,259 | 100 |
| CA | $44,670 | $40,345 | 9,050 |
| CT | $44,370 | $42,824 | 1,050 |
| UT | $44,210 | $44,718 | 410 |
| NY | $43,870 | $40,650 | 5,310 |
| MI | $43,630 | $45,345 | 2,180 |

37 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 52 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/helpers-installation-maintenance-and-repair-worker/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/helpers-installation-maintenance-and-repair-worker.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 97,100 in the 2025–2035 base year to 102,200 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 5,100 jobs, or +5.3%. Faster than average: 5.3% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 13,600 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:** Short-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) | 31.7% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 25.1% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 23.5% |
| Some College Courses | 17.3% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 2.3% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 0.0% |

## What the work involves

- Tend and observe equipment and machinery to verify efficient and safe operation.
- Examine and test machinery, equipment, components, and parts for defects to ensure proper functioning.
- Install or replace machinery, equipment, and new or replacement parts and instruments, using hand or power tools.
- Adjust, connect, or disconnect wiring, piping, tubing, and other parts, using hand or power tools.
- Disassemble broken or defective equipment to facilitate repair and reassemble equipment when repairs are complete.
- Transfer tools, parts, equipment, and supplies to and from work stations and other areas.
- Clean or lubricate vehicles, machinery, equipment, instruments, tools, work areas, and other objects, using hand tools, power tools, and cleaning equipment.
- Hold or supply tools, parts, equipment, and supplies for other workers.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- 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
- Speaking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.1 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.

- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Maintenance — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Repairing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Mechanical — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Building and Construction — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Engineering and Technology — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- 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
- Control Precision — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Multilimb Coordination — importance 3.4 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 | 6.99 |
| C — Conventional | 4.04 |
| I — Investigative | 1.97 |
| S — Social | 1.82 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.63 |
| A — Artistic | 1.10 |

### 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 | 86.8 |
| ISFJ | 75.2 |
| ESTJ | 73.9 |
| ISTP | 73.5 |
| INTJ | 60.9 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Helpers--Production Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/helpers-production-worker) — median $39,070
- [Helpers--Pipelayer, Plumber, Pipefitter, and Steamfitter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/helpers-pipelayer-plumber-pipefitter-and-steamfitter) — median $42,360
- [Helpers--Electrician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/helpers-electrician) — median $42,670
- [Helpers--Extraction Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/helpers-extraction-worker) — median $47,730
- [Helpers--Carpenter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/helpers-carpenter) — median $43,780
- [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
- [Millwright](https://nuecareer.com/careers/millwright) — median $65,700
- [Electric Motor, Power Tool, and Related Repairer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electric-motor-power-tool-and-related-repairer) — median $56,210
- [Maintenance Worker, Machinery](https://nuecareer.com/careers/maintenance-worker-machinery) — median $60,850

## 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-installation-maintenance-and-repair-worker