---
title: "Inspector, Tester, Sorter, Sampler, and Weigher"
description: "Inspect, test, sort, sample, or weigh nonagricultural raw materials or processed, machined, fabricated, or assembled parts or products for defects, wear…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/inspector-tester-sorter-sampler-and-weigher"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Inspector, Tester, Sorter, Sampler, and Weigher

**Category:** Production · **SOC code:** 51-9061 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 51-9061.00

Inspect, test, sort, sample, or weigh nonagricultural raw materials or processed, machined, fabricated, or assembled parts or products for defects, wear, and deviations from specifications. May use precision measuring instruments and complex test equipment.

Also advertised as: Inspector; QA Auditor (Quality Assurance Auditor); QA Inspector (Quality Assurance Inspector); QA Technician (Quality Assurance Technician); QC Technician (Quality Control Technician); Quality Auditor; Quality Control Inspector (QC Inspector); Quality Inspector.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $48,570 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $23.35/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $35,510 to $77,860, with the middle half between $39,890 and $61,440
- **Total US employment:** 597,370
- **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:** 0.0% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 69,900 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 43/100 — 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 597,370 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $35,510 |
| 25th | $39,890 |
| 50th (median) | $48,570 |
| 75th | $61,440 |
| 90th | $77,860 |
| Mean (average) | $53,450 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| AK | $78,150 | $76,349 | 300 |
| WA | $64,420 | $60,198 | 12,010 |
| MD | $61,790 | $58,871 | 4,600 |
| HI | $59,740 | $54,333 | 650 |
| DC | $59,730 | $54,349 | 70 |
| CO | $58,350 | $56,622 | 5,220 |
| MT | $58,070 | $61,356 | 580 |
| WY | $57,900 | $62,466 | 990 |
| DE | $57,190 | $57,300 | 1,020 |
| MN | $57,170 | $57,969 | 9,710 |
| CT | $57,090 | $55,101 | 7,460 |
| RI | $54,940 | $53,715 | 1,790 |
| NH | $54,800 | $52,609 | 3,050 |
| MO | $54,420 | $59,923 | 12,480 |
| CA | $54,300 | $49,043 | 61,130 |

39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/inspector-tester-sorter-sampler-and-weigher/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/inspector-tester-sorter-sampler-and-weigher.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 598,000 in the 2024–2034 base year to 598,100 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 100 jobs, or 0.0%. Slower than average: 0.0% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 69,900 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## 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 | 69.8% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 26.9% |
| Some College Courses | 2.6% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 0.7% |

## What the work involves

- Inspect, test, or measure materials, products, installations, or work for conformance to specifications.
- Notify supervisors or other personnel of production problems.
- Discard or reject products, materials, or equipment not meeting specifications.
- Measure dimensions of products to verify conformance to specifications, using measuring instruments, such as rulers, calipers, gauges, or micrometers.
- Read blueprints, data, manuals, or other materials to determine specifications, inspection and testing procedures, adjustment methods, certification processes, formulas, or measuring instruments required.
- Read dials or meters to verify that equipment is functioning at specified levels.
- Mark items with details, such as grade or acceptance-rejection status.
- Monitor production operations or equipment to ensure conformance to specifications, making necessary process or assembly adjustments.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Writing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.4 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 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Production and Processing — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Perceptual Speed — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Flexibility of Closure — 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), Investigative (I).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 5.73 |
| C — Conventional | 5.36 |
| I — Investigative | 3.42 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.38 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |
| S — Social | 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 | 95.2 |
| ISTP | 78.5 |
| ISFJ | 76.7 |
| ESTJ | 75.8 |
| INTJ | 72.9 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Calibration Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/calibration-technologist-and-technician) — median $67,820
- [Industrial Machinery Mechanic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/industrial-machinery-mechanic) — median $64,520
- [Electrical and Electronic Equipment Assembler](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-and-electronic-equipment-assembler) — median $45,930
- [Aircraft Structure, Surface, Rigging, and Systems Assembler](https://nuecareer.com/careers/aircraft-structure-surface-rigging-and-systems-assembler) — median $65,380
- [Electromechanical Equipment Assembler](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electromechanical-equipment-assembler) — median $45,930
- [Weigher, Measurer, Checker, and Sampler, Recordkeeping](https://nuecareer.com/careers/weigher-measurer-checker-and-sampler-recordkeeping) — median $46,380
- [Engine and Other Machine Assembler](https://nuecareer.com/careers/engine-and-other-machine-assembler) — median $53,710
- [Machine Feeder and Offbearer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/machine-feeder-and-offbearer) — median $41,220
- [Electrical and Electronics Repairer, Commercial and Industrial Equipment](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-and-electronics-repairer-commercial-and-industrial-equipment) — median $74,090
- [Multiple Machine Tool Setter, Operator, and Tender, Metal and Plastic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/multiple-machine-tool-setter-operator-and-tender-metal-and-plastic) — median $47,180

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 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, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 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 30.3 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/inspector-tester-sorter-sampler-and-weigher