---
title: "Rock Splitter, Quarry"
description: "Separate blocks of rough dimension stone from quarry mass using jackhammers, wedges, or chop saws."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/rock-splitter-quarry"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Rock Splitter, Quarry

**Category:** Construction and Extraction · **SOC code:** 47-5051 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 47-5051.00

Separate blocks of rough dimension stone from quarry mass using jackhammers, wedges, or chop saws.

Also advertised as: Driller; Quarry Worker; Rock Splitter; Splitter Operator; Stone Breaker; Stone Splitter.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $48,740 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $23.44/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $37,340 to $67,710, with the middle half between $42,670 and $60,030
- **Total US employment:** 3,320
- **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:** +5.8% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 400 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 59/100 — 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 3,320 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $37,340 |
| 25th | $42,670 |
| 50th (median) | $48,740 |
| 75th | $60,030 |
| 90th | $67,710 |
| Mean (average) | $51,500 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MA | $66,000 | $62,407 | 90 |
| VT | $65,420 | $66,784 | Not published by BLS |
| WI | $62,000 | $65,891 | 40 |
| CA | $61,620 | $55,654 | 290 |
| MO | $60,990 | $67,157 | 280 |
| OR | $59,760 | $57,817 | 50 |
| MN | $57,970 | $58,781 | 80 |
| NC | $56,320 | $59,708 | 80 |
| IN | $49,890 | $53,456 | 220 |
| PA | $48,580 | $49,789 | 260 |
| OH | $48,560 | $52,342 | 50 |
| TN | $48,160 | $52,422 | 300 |
| CO | $46,590 | $45,210 | 100 |
| MT | $46,260 | $48,877 | 100 |
| OK | $45,040 | $51,273 | 200 |

5 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 20 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/rock-splitter-quarry/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/rock-splitter-quarry.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 3,500 in the 2025–2035 base year to 3,700 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 200 jobs, or +5.8%. Faster than average: 5.8% 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 |
| --- | --- |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 49.5% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 31.5% |
| First Professional Degree | 19.0% |

## What the work involves

- Remove pieces of stone from larger masses, using jackhammers, wedges, and other tools.
- Insert wedges and feathers into holes, and drive wedges with sledgehammers to split stone sections from masses.
- Mark dimensions or outlines on stone prior to cutting, using rules and chalk lines.
- Locate grain line patterns to determine how rocks will split when cut.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.0 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 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Production and Processing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 2.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Multilimb Coordination — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Control Precision — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Static Strength — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Trunk Strength — importance 3.4 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 | 6.99 |
| C — Conventional | 3.19 |
| I — Investigative | 2.07 |
| A — Artistic | 1.74 |
| S — Social | 1.26 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.17 |

### 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 | 83.6 |
| ISTP | 77.3 |
| ISFJ | 69.3 |
| ESTJ | 66.7 |
| INTJ | 65.3 |

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.

- [Stone Cutter and Carver, Manufacturing](https://nuecareer.com/careers/stone-cutter-and-carver-manufacturing) — median $46,170
- [Rotary Drill Operator, Oil and Gas](https://nuecareer.com/careers/rotary-drill-operator-oil-and-gas) — median $67,890
- [Foundry Mold and Coremaker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/foundry-mold-and-coremaker) — median $48,110
- [Sawing Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender, Wood](https://nuecareer.com/careers/sawing-machine-setter-operator-and-tender-wood) — median $42,770
- [Cutter and Trimmer, Hand](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cutter-and-trimmer-hand) — median $38,020
- [Earth Driller, Except Oil and Gas](https://nuecareer.com/careers/earth-driller) — median $60,190
- [Construction Laborer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/construction-laborer) — median $47,120
- [Cement Mason and Concrete Finisher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cement-mason-and-concrete-finisher) — median $57,020
- [Helpers--Extraction Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/helpers-extraction-worker) — median $47,730
- [Grinding and Polishing Worker, Hand](https://nuecareer.com/careers/grinding-and-polishing-worker-hand) — median $42,660

## 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/rock-splitter-quarry