---
title: "Pyrotechnician"
description: "Designs, sets up and fires fireworks and stage pyrotechnics for concerts, sports events, theme parks and public displays."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/pyrotechnician"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Pyrotechnician

**Category:** Construction and Extraction · **SOC code:** 47-5032 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 47-5032.00

Designs, sets up and fires fireworks and stage pyrotechnics for concerts, sports events, theme parks and public displays.

Also advertised as: Pyrotechnic Operator; Proximate Pyrotechnic Operator; Fireworks Display Operator; Special Effects Pyrotechnician.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $61,390 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $29.51/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $40,480 to $99,360, with the middle half between $49,630 and $80,370
- **Total US employment:** 5,100
- **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 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 400 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 61/100 — 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 5,100 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $40,480 |
| 25th | $49,630 |
| 50th (median) | $61,390 |
| 75th | $80,370 |
| 90th | $99,360 |
| Mean (average) | $66,640 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NJ | $100,520 | $92,385 | Not published by BLS |
| NY | $96,940 | $89,825 | Not published by BLS |
| NC | $85,630 | $90,781 | 160 |
| WY | $85,070 | $91,778 | 60 |
| PA | $84,400 | $86,500 | Not published by BLS |
| CA | $80,370 | $72,589 | 220 |
| NM | $78,960 | $85,629 | 80 |
| TN | $74,190 | $80,755 | 70 |
| FL | $69,780 | $67,476 | 90 |
| CO | $69,640 | $67,578 | 140 |
| UT | $67,910 | $68,690 | 50 |
| HI | $64,560 | $58,717 | 110 |
| MO | $64,040 | $70,515 | 150 |
| VA | $63,920 | $63,222 | 80 |
| GA | $61,480 | $63,847 | 70 |

17 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 32 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/pyrotechnician/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/pyrotechnician.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 5,200 in the 2025–2035 base year to 5,200 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 0 jobs, or 0.0%. Slower than average: 0.0% 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:** 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:** Less than 5 years.
- **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) | 62.5% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 20.8% |
| Some College Courses | 8.3% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 4.2% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 4.2% |

## What the work involves

- Design effect placement and firing sequences for shows
- Apply for permits and meet with fire marshals
- Transport and store explosives under federal and state rules
- Set up mortars, racks, flame units and firing systems
- Calculate and mark safe audience and performer distances
- Fire effects on cue during live performances
- Inspect sites after shows and safely dispose of misfires

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.9 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.

- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Personnel Resources — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Public Safety and Security — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Engineering and Technology — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Manual Dexterity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 3.9 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 | 6.90 |
| C — Conventional | 4.82 |
| I — Investigative | 3.77 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.99 |
| S — Social | 1.30 |
| A — Artistic | 1.25 |

### 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 | 93.3 |
| ISTP | 81.0 |
| ESTJ | 76.8 |
| INTJ | 71.3 |
| ISFJ | 70.4 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Explosives Worker, Ordnance Handling Expert, and Blaster](https://nuecareer.com/careers/explosives-worker-ordnance-handling-expert-and-blaster) — median $61,390
- [Earth Driller, Except Oil and Gas](https://nuecareer.com/careers/earth-driller) — median $60,190
- [Helpers--Extraction Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/helpers-extraction-worker) — median $47,730
- [Rotary Drill Operator, Oil and Gas](https://nuecareer.com/careers/rotary-drill-operator-oil-and-gas) — median $67,890
- [Continuous Mining Machine Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/continuous-mining-machine-operator) — median $61,810
- [Operating Engineer and Other Construction Equipment Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/operating-engineer-and-other-construction-equipment-operator) — median $59,850
- [Pile Driver Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pile-driver-operator) — median $73,300
- [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
- [Roof Bolter, Mining](https://nuecareer.com/careers/roof-bolter-mining) — median $78,540
- [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/
- **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/pyrotechnician