---
title: "Sewer, Hand"
description: "Sew, join, reinforce, or finish, usually with needle and thread, a variety of manufactured items. Includes weavers and stitchers."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/sewer-hand"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Sewer, Hand

**Category:** Production · **SOC code:** 51-6051 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 51-6051.00

Sew, join, reinforce, or finish, usually with needle and thread, a variety of manufactured items. Includes weavers and stitchers.

Also advertised as: Alteration Specialist; Couturier; Custom Clothier; Custom Designer; Custom Seamstress; Seamstress; Stitcher.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $36,480 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $17.54/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $27,680 to $47,570, with the middle half between $33,330 and $40,720
- **Total US employment:** 2,190
- **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:** -12.0% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 600 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 41/100 — 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 2,190 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $27,680 |
| 25th | $33,330 |
| 50th (median) | $36,480 |
| 75th | $40,720 |
| 90th | $47,570 |
| Mean (average) | $37,210 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CO | $47,600 | $46,190 | Not published by BLS |
| WA | $45,170 | $42,210 | Not published by BLS |
| CA | $42,420 | $38,313 | 110 |
| IA | $42,290 | $48,187 | 40 |
| SC | $39,690 | $42,336 | Not published by BLS |
| NV | $39,440 | $39,448 | Not published by BLS |
| MA | $38,680 | $36,574 | 40 |
| FL | $38,480 | $37,210 | 140 |
| GA | $38,210 | $39,681 | 120 |
| NY | $37,380 | $34,636 | 120 |
| NC | $36,550 | $38,749 | 70 |
| IL | $36,480 | $36,495 | Not published by BLS |
| NJ | $36,400 | $33,454 | 40 |
| PA | $35,560 | $36,445 | 230 |
| IN | $34,410 | $36,870 | Not published by BLS |

3 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 18 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/sewer-hand/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/sewer-hand.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 5,300 in the 2025–2035 base year to 4,600 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 600 jobs, or -12.0%. Declining: -12.0% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 600 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 | 82.2% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 10.8% |
| Some College Courses | 4.1% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 2.0% |
| First Professional Degree | 0.5% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 0.4% |

## What the work involves

- Trim excess threads or edges of parts, using scissors or knives.
- Select thread, twine, cord, or yarn to be used, and thread needles.
- Use different sewing techniques such as felling, tacking, basting, embroidery, and fagoting.
- Measure and align parts, fasteners, or trimmings, following seams, edges, or markings on parts.
- Sew, join, reinforce, or finish parts of articles, such as garments, books, mattresses, toys, and wigs, using needles and thread or other materials.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.0 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.

- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Manual Dexterity — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Finger Dexterity — 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
- Near Vision — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Control Precision — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — 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 | 6.48 |
| C — Conventional | 3.25 |
| A — Artistic | 2.39 |
| S — Social | 1.56 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.15 |
| I — Investigative | 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 | 77.8 |
| ISTP | 70.6 |
| ISFJ | 70.2 |
| ESTJ | 64.7 |
| ISFP | 60.2 |

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
- [Tailor, Dressmaker, and Custom Sewer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/tailor-dressmaker-and-custom-sewer) — median $41,640
- [Shoe and Leather Worker and Repairer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/shoe-and-leather-worker-and-repairer) — median $37,800
- [Shoe Machine Operator and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/shoe-machine-operator-and-tender) — median $35,650
- [Fabric and Apparel Patternmaker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fabric-and-apparel-patternmaker) — median $62,750
- [Presser, Textile, Garment, and Related Materials](https://nuecareer.com/careers/presser-textile-garment-and-related-materials) — median $35,060
- [Upholsterer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/upholsterer) — median $46,340
- [Cutter and Trimmer, Hand](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cutter-and-trimmer-hand) — median $38,020
- [Textile Knitting and Weaving Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/textile-knitting-and-weaving-machine-setter-operator-and-tender) — median $39,530
- [Patternmaker, Metal and Plastic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/patternmaker-metal-and-plastic) — median $58,000

## 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/sewer-hand