---
title: "Oil and Gas Roustabout"
description: "Assemble or repair oil field equipment using hand and power tools. Perform other tasks as needed."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/oil-and-gas-roustabout"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Oil and Gas Roustabout

**Category:** Construction and Extraction · **SOC code:** 47-5071 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 47-5071.00

Assemble or repair oil field equipment using hand and power tools. Perform other tasks as needed.

Also advertised as: Field Service Roustabout; Floor Hand; Oil and Gas Roustabout; Oil Field Roustabout; Production Roustabout; Rig Hand; Roustabout; Roustabout Crew Pusher.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $46,960 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $22.58/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $36,420 to $64,530, with the middle half between $38,850 and $58,120
- **Total US employment:** 44,970
- **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:** +3.6% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 4,100 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 71/100 — 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 44,970 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $36,420 |
| 25th | $38,850 |
| 50th (median) | $46,960 |
| 75th | $58,120 |
| 90th | $64,530 |
| Mean (average) | $49,200 |

### 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 | $60,810 | $59,409 | 430 |
| ND | $60,480 | $67,986 | 2,460 |
| MT | $58,800 | $62,127 | 200 |
| FL | $57,080 | $55,196 | 40 |
| NE | $53,340 | $59,199 | 40 |
| IN | $51,740 | $55,438 | 100 |
| MI | $51,720 | $53,753 | 290 |
| OH | $51,230 | $55,220 | 450 |
| SD | $50,370 | $56,860 | 40 |
| NM | $50,000 | $54,223 | 2,220 |
| AL | $49,400 | $55,616 | 70 |
| MS | $49,240 | $56,628 | 420 |
| CO | $49,050 | $47,597 | 1,620 |
| CA | $48,880 | $44,147 | 660 |
| UT | $48,270 | $48,825 | 740 |

8 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 23 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/oil-and-gas-roustabout/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/oil-and-gas-roustabout.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 45,500 in the 2025–2035 base year to 47,100 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 1,700 jobs, or +3.6%. About as fast as average: 3.6% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 4,100 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:** 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 |
| --- | --- |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 64.1% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 35.5% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 0.4% |

## What the work involves

- Unscrew or tighten pipes, casing, tubing, and pump rods, using hand and power wrenches and tongs.
- Clean trucks used in the fields.
- Move pipes to and from trucks, using truck winches and motorized lifts, or by hand.
- Walk flow lines to locate leaks, using electronic detectors and by making visual inspections, and repair the leaks.
- Lay gas and oil pipelines.
- Bolt together pump and engine parts.
- Dismantle and repair oil field machinery, boilers, and steam engine parts, using hand tools and power tools.
- Guide cranes to move loads about decks.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Critical Thinking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.1 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 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — 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 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Maintenance — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Repairing — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Mechanical — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Transportation — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Manual Dexterity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Multilimb Coordination — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Control Precision — 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 | 3.29 |
| I — Investigative | 1.79 |
| 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 | 85.8 |
| ISTP | 76.6 |
| ISFJ | 71.6 |
| ESTJ | 70.2 |
| INTJ | 64.4 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Rotary Drill Operator, Oil and Gas](https://nuecareer.com/careers/rotary-drill-operator-oil-and-gas) — median $67,890
- [Service Unit Operator, Oil and Gas](https://nuecareer.com/careers/service-unit-operator-oil-and-gas) — median $58,160
- [Hoist and Winch Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/hoist-and-winch-operator) — median $56,450
- [Helpers--Extraction Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/helpers-extraction-worker) — median $47,730
- [Rigger](https://nuecareer.com/careers/rigger) — median $62,640
- [Operating Engineer and Other Construction Equipment Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/operating-engineer-and-other-construction-equipment-operator) — median $59,850
- [Earth Driller, Except Oil and Gas](https://nuecareer.com/careers/earth-driller) — median $60,190
- [Maintenance Worker, Machinery](https://nuecareer.com/careers/maintenance-worker-machinery) — median $60,850
- [Derrick Operator, Oil and Gas](https://nuecareer.com/careers/derrick-operator-oil-and-gas) — median $58,620
- [Construction Laborer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/construction-laborer) — median $47,120

## 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/oil-and-gas-roustabout