---
title: "Loading and Moving Machine Operator, Underground Mining"
description: "Operate underground loading or moving machine to load or move coal, ore, or rock using shuttle or mine car or conveyors. Equipment may include power…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/loading-and-moving-machine-operator-underground-mining"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Loading and Moving Machine Operator, Underground Mining

**Category:** Construction and Extraction · **SOC code:** 47-5044 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 47-5044.00

Operate underground loading or moving machine to load or move coal, ore, or rock using shuttle or mine car or conveyors. Equipment may include power shovels, hoisting engines equipped with cable-drawn scraper or scoop, or machines equipped with gathering arms and conveyor.

Also advertised as: Coal Hauler Operator; Equipment Operator; Load Haul Dump Operator (LHD Operator); Loader Operator; Loading Machine Operator; Miner Operator; Production Miner; Ram Car Operator.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $74,500 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $35.82/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $52,030 to $87,730, with the middle half between $61,410 and $79,150
- **Total US employment:** 5,930
- **Typical entry education:** No formal credential
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -15.8% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 400 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 57/100 — 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 5,930 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $52,030 |
| 25th | $61,410 |
| 50th (median) | $74,500 |
| 75th | $79,150 |
| 90th | $87,730 |
| Mean (average) | $71,240 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WY | $112,110 | $120,950 | 30 |
| AK | $93,130 | $90,984 | 50 |
| NV | $82,920 | $82,937 | 880 |
| SC | $80,480 | $85,846 | 30 |
| CO | $79,150 | $76,806 | 70 |
| VA | $76,900 | $76,060 | 190 |
| IL | $75,890 | $75,922 | 90 |
| PA | $75,240 | $77,112 | Not published by BLS |
| WV | $74,950 | $83,746 | 1,250 |
| AZ | $72,430 | $71,943 | 100 |
| OH | $71,380 | $76,940 | 130 |
| NY | $60,890 | $56,421 | 140 |
| AL | $60,020 | $67,573 | 510 |
| MI | $59,310 | $61,642 | 80 |
| MO | $52,040 | $57,302 | 100 |

5 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 20 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/loading-and-moving-machine-operator-underground-mining/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/loading-and-moving-machine-operator-underground-mining.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 5,900 in the 2025–2035 base year to 5,000 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 900 jobs, or -15.8%. Declining: -15.8% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 400 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:** No formal educational credential (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) | 52.6% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 40.0% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 6.2% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 1.3% |

## What the work involves

- Drive loaded shuttle cars to ramps and move controls to discharge loads into mine cars or onto conveyors.
- Examine roadway and clear obstructions from the path of travel.
- Observe hand signals, grade stakes, or other markings when operating machines.
- Control conveyors that run the entire length of shuttle cars to distribute loads as loading progresses.
- Handle high voltage sources and hang electrical cables.
- Pry off loose material from roofs and move it into the paths of machines, using crowbars.
- Clean, fuel, service, and perform safety checks on all equipment, and repair and replace parts as necessary.
- Monitor loading processes to ensure that materials are loaded according to specifications.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- 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
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.0 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.

- Operation and Control — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Maintenance — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Repairing — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Mechanical — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Control Precision — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Multilimb Coordination — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reaction Time — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Manual 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 | 7.00 |
| C — Conventional | 3.70 |
| I — Investigative | 2.15 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |
| S — Social | 1.00 |
| E — Enterprising | 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 | 87.9 |
| ISTP | 79.8 |
| ESTJ | 71.0 |
| ISFJ | 70.6 |
| INTJ | 66.3 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ. The bank also flags this occupation as introvert-friendly, meaning O\*NET work-context ratings put it low on public contact and performing for the public.

## Related occupations

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

- [Industrial Truck and Tractor Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/industrial-truck-and-tractor-operator) — median $46,420
- [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
- [Continuous Mining Machine Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/continuous-mining-machine-operator) — median $61,810
- [Hoist and Winch Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/hoist-and-winch-operator) — median $56,450
- [Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loader](https://nuecareer.com/careers/tank-car-truck-and-ship-loader) — median $58,870
- [Operating Engineer and Other Construction Equipment Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/operating-engineer-and-other-construction-equipment-operator) — median $59,850
- [Crane and Tower Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/crane-and-tower-operator) — median $68,080
- [Pile Driver Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pile-driver-operator) — median $73,300
- [Maintenance Worker, Machinery](https://nuecareer.com/careers/maintenance-worker-machinery) — median $60,850
- [Laborer and Freight, Stock, and Material Mover, Hand](https://nuecareer.com/careers/laborer-and-freight-stock-and-material-mover-hand) — median $40,240

## 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/loading-and-moving-machine-operator-underground-mining