---
title: "Jeweler and Precious Stone and Metal Worker"
description: "Design, fabricate, adjust, repair, or appraise jewelry, gold, silver, other precious metals, or gems."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/jeweler-and-precious-stone-and-metal-worker"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Jeweler and Precious Stone and Metal Worker

**Category:** Production · **SOC code:** 51-9071 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 51-9071.00

Design, fabricate, adjust, repair, or appraise jewelry, gold, silver, other precious metals, or gems.

Also advertised as: Appraiser; Artisan Jeweler; Bench Jeweler; Caster; Gemologist; Goldsmith; Jeweler; Polisher.

## 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:** 50/100 — 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/jeweler-and-precious-stone-and-metal-worker/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/jeweler-and-precious-stone-and-metal-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.

### 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) | 25.3% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 21.4% |
| Some College Courses | 19.5% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 16.5% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 8.8% |
| Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 6.9% |

## What the work involves

- Examine assembled or finished products to ensure conformance to specifications, using magnifying glasses or precision measuring instruments.
- Record the weights and processing times of finished pieces.
- Clean and polish metal items and jewelry pieces, using jewelers' tools, polishing wheels, and chemical baths.
- Shape and straighten damaged or twisted articles by hand or using pliers.
- Create jewelry from materials such as gold, silver, platinum, and precious or semiprecious stones.
- Smooth soldered joints and rough spots, using hand files and emery paper, and polish smoothed areas with polishing wheels or buffing wire.
- Cut and file pieces of jewelry such as rings, brooches, bracelets, and lockets.
- Position stones and metal pieces, and set, mount, and secure items in place, using setting and hand tools.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.3 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.

- 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
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Design — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sales and Marketing — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Near Vision — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Finger 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
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Originality — importance 3.1 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), Artistic (A), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 6.59 |
| A — Artistic | 3.70 |
| C — Conventional | 3.35 |
| I — Investigative | 2.60 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.51 |
| S — Social | 1.03 |

### 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) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTP | 78.9 |
| ISTJ | 77.9 |
| INTJ | 71.1 |
| INTP | 62.6 |
| ISFJ | 61.0 |

Best-fitting types: ISTP, ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Gem and Diamond Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/gem-and-diamond-worker) — median $52,540
- [Etcher and Engraver](https://nuecareer.com/careers/etcher-and-engraver) — median $43,310
- [Grinding and Polishing Worker, Hand](https://nuecareer.com/careers/grinding-and-polishing-worker-hand) — median $42,660
- [Molder, Shaper, and Caster, Except Metal and Plastic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/molder-shaper-and-caster) — median $46,170
- [Craft Artist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/craft-artist) — median $46,080
- [Stone Cutter and Carver, Manufacturing](https://nuecareer.com/careers/stone-cutter-and-carver-manufacturing) — median $46,170
- [Shoe and Leather Worker and Repairer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/shoe-and-leather-worker-and-repairer) — median $37,800
- [Painting, Coating, and Decorating Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/painting-coating-and-decorating-worker) — median $41,600
- [Sewer, Hand](https://nuecareer.com/careers/sewer-hand) — median $36,480
- [Tool and Die Maker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/tool-and-die-maker) — median $64,050

## 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/jeweler-and-precious-stone-and-metal-worker