---
title: "Presser, Textile, Garment, and Related Materials"
description: "Press or shape articles by hand or machine."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/presser-textile-garment-and-related-materials"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Presser, Textile, Garment, and Related Materials

**Category:** Production · **SOC code:** 51-6021 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 51-6021.00

Press or shape articles by hand or machine.

Also advertised as: Boarder; Dry Cleaner Presser; Garment Presser; Ironing Machine Operator; Ironing Worker; Pants Presser; Presser; Pressing Machine Operator.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $35,060 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $16.85/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $27,180 to $43,050, with the middle half between $29,870 and $37,940
- **Total US employment:** 26,120
- **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:** -15.7% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 2,200 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 54/100 — 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 26,120 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $27,180 |
| 25th | $29,870 |
| 50th (median) | $35,060 |
| 75th | $37,940 |
| 90th | $43,050 |
| Mean (average) | $34,640 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| IL | $40,230 | $40,247 | Not published by BLS |
| CA | $39,300 | $35,495 | 3,850 |
| NH | $38,540 | $36,999 | 100 |
| CO | $38,300 | $37,166 | 320 |
| ME | $38,020 | $39,176 | 60 |
| NJ | $37,920 | $34,851 | 870 |
| WA | $37,620 | $35,155 | 460 |
| AZ | $36,870 | $36,622 | 360 |
| OR | $36,860 | $35,661 | 230 |
| NY | $36,510 | $33,830 | 1,730 |
| MA | $36,410 | $34,428 | 470 |
| RI | $36,390 | $35,579 | 170 |
| MI | $36,290 | $37,717 | 300 |
| CT | $36,030 | $34,775 | 740 |
| ID | $35,990 | $37,688 | 110 |

30 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 45 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/presser-textile-garment-and-related-materials/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/presser-textile-garment-and-related-materials.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 26,300 in the 2025–2035 base year to 22,200 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 4,100 jobs, or -15.7%. Declining: -15.7% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 2,200 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 |
| --- | --- |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 59.2% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 25.6% |
| Doctoral Degree | 14.2% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 1.1% |

## What the work involves

- Remove finished pieces from pressing machines and hang or stack them for cooling, or forward them for additional processing.
- Operate steam, hydraulic, or other pressing machines to remove wrinkles from garments and flatwork items, or to shape, form, or patch articles.
- Straighten, smooth, or shape materials to prepare them for pressing.
- Push and pull irons over surfaces of articles to smooth or shape them.
- Lower irons, rams, or pressing heads of machines into position over material to be pressed.
- Select appropriate pressing machines, based on garment properties such as heat tolerance.
- Finish pleated garments, determining sizes of pleats from evidence of old pleats or from work orders, using machine presses or hand irons.
- Moisten materials to soften and smooth them.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Critical Thinking — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 2.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 1.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 1.8 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 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Maintenance — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 2.5 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 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Control Precision — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Finger Dexterity — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Multilimb Coordination — 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), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 6.38 |
| C — Conventional | 3.50 |
| A — Artistic | 2.31 |
| I — Investigative | 1.46 |
| S — Social | 1.15 |
| 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 | 81.9 |
| ISTP | 74.7 |
| ISFJ | 70.3 |
| ESTJ | 65.3 |
| INTJ | 63.6 |

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.

- [Sewing Machine Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/sewing-machine-operator) — median $36,670
- [Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/laundry-and-dry-cleaning-worker) — median $34,890
- [Shoe Machine Operator and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/shoe-machine-operator-and-tender) — median $35,650
- [Paper Goods Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/paper-goods-machine-setter-operator-and-tender) — median $50,270
- [Machine Feeder and Offbearer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/machine-feeder-and-offbearer) — median $41,220
- [Cutter and Trimmer, Hand](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cutter-and-trimmer-hand) — median $38,020
- [Cutting and Slicing Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cutting-and-slicing-machine-setter-operator-and-tender) — median $46,570
- [Adhesive Bonding Machine Operator and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/adhesive-bonding-machine-operator-and-tender) — median $46,460
- [Textile Bleaching and Dyeing Machine Operator and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/textile-bleaching-and-dyeing-machine-operator-and-tender) — median $38,180
- [Shoe and Leather Worker and Repairer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/shoe-and-leather-worker-and-repairer) — median $37,800

## 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/presser-textile-garment-and-related-materials