---
title: "Roof Bolter, Mining"
description: "Operate machinery to install roof support bolts in underground mine."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/roof-bolter-mining"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Roof Bolter, Mining

**Category:** Construction and Extraction · **SOC code:** 47-5043 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 47-5043.00

Operate machinery to install roof support bolts in underground mine.

Also advertised as: Bolt Machine Operator; Bolt Man; Bolter; Miner; Place Change Roof Bolter; Roof Bolter; Roof Bolter Operator; Underground Miner.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $78,540 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $37.76/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $63,750 to $92,830, with the middle half between $71,390 and $81,860
- **Total US employment:** 2,160
- **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:** -18.9% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 100 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 63/100 — 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 2,160 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $63,750 |
| 25th | $71,390 |
| 50th (median) | $78,540 |
| 75th | $81,860 |
| 90th | $92,830 |
| Mean (average) | $78,100 |

### Pay by state

The 7 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 | $116,570 | $125,762 | 100 |
| IL | $81,860 | $81,894 | 200 |
| CO | $81,270 | $78,863 | 40 |
| WV | $79,400 | $88,718 | 970 |
| VA | $78,260 | $77,405 | 110 |
| KY | $72,510 | $80,425 | 120 |
| AL | $67,020 | $75,453 | 80 |

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 2,200 in the 2025–2035 base year to 1,800 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 400 jobs, or -18.9%. Declining: -18.9% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 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:** 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:** 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 |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 86.7% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 13.3% |

## What the work involves

- Drill bolt holes into roofs at specified distances from ribs or adjacent bolts.
- Pull down loose rock that cannot be supported.
- Position bolting machines, and insert drill bits into chucks.
- Perform safety checks on equipment before operating.
- Perform tests to determine if methane gas is present.
- Force bolts into holes, using hydraulic mechanisms of self-propelled bolting machines.
- Remove drill bits from chucks after drilling holes, and insert bolts into chucks.
- Drill test holes and test bolts for specified tension, using torque wrenches.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Critical Thinking — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.3 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.

- Operation and Control — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Maintenance — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Repairing — 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

### Knowledge areas

- Production and Processing — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Control Precision — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Manual Dexterity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Extent Flexibility — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Multilimb Coordination — importance 3.8 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 | 3.34 |
| I — Investigative | 2.46 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.01 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |
| S — Social | 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 | 87.3 |
| ISTP | 80.1 |
| ISFJ | 69.7 |
| ESTJ | 69.5 |
| INTJ | 67.8 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Continuous Mining Machine Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/continuous-mining-machine-operator) — median $61,810
- [Earth Driller, Except Oil and Gas](https://nuecareer.com/careers/earth-driller) — median $60,190
- [Structural Iron and Steel Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/structural-iron-and-steel-worker) — median $62,780
- [Aircraft Structure, Surface, Rigging, and Systems Assembler](https://nuecareer.com/careers/aircraft-structure-surface-rigging-and-systems-assembler) — median $65,380
- [Rigger](https://nuecareer.com/careers/rigger) — median $62,640
- [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
- [Explosives Worker, Ordnance Handling Expert, and Blaster](https://nuecareer.com/careers/explosives-worker-ordnance-handling-expert-and-blaster) — median $61,390
- [Reinforcing Iron and Rebar Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/reinforcing-iron-and-rebar-worker) — median $58,970
- [Rotary Drill Operator, Oil and Gas](https://nuecareer.com/careers/rotary-drill-operator-oil-and-gas) — median $67,890

## 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

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