---
title: "Textile Cutting Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender"
description: "Set up, operate, or tend machines that cut textiles."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/textile-cutting-machine-setter-operator-and-tender"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Textile Cutting Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender

**Category:** Production · **SOC code:** 51-6062 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 51-6062.00

Set up, operate, or tend machines that cut textiles.

Also advertised as: Automated Cutting Machine Operator; CNC Cutting Operator (Computer Numerical Control Cutting Operator); Cutter; Cutter Operator; Die Cut Operator; Fabric Cutter; Laser Operator; Spread Cutter.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $38,760 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $18.64/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $28,650 to $49,420, with the middle half between $34,230 and $45,220
- **Total US employment:** 9,000
- **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:** -13.6% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 900 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 48/100 — 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 9,000 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $28,650 |
| 25th | $34,230 |
| 50th (median) | $38,760 |
| 75th | $45,220 |
| 90th | $49,420 |
| Mean (average) | $39,530 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CT | $47,160 | $45,517 | 50 |
| NY | $46,810 | $43,374 | 170 |
| NH | $45,930 | $44,094 | 80 |
| HI | $45,760 | $41,619 | Not published by BLS |
| WA | $45,380 | $42,406 | 140 |
| MA | $43,680 | $41,302 | 380 |
| NC | $43,460 | $46,074 | 840 |
| IN | $41,740 | $44,724 | 70 |
| SC | $41,740 | $44,523 | 480 |
| OH | $41,600 | $44,840 | 370 |
| MN | $41,480 | $42,060 | 100 |
| NJ | $40,780 | $37,480 | 120 |
| RI | $40,000 | $39,108 | 30 |
| GA | $39,840 | $41,374 | 1,560 |
| WI | $39,630 | $42,117 | 130 |

23 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 38 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/textile-cutting-machine-setter-operator-and-tender/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/textile-cutting-machine-setter-operator-and-tender.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 9,400 in the 2025–2035 base year to 8,200 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 1,300 jobs, or -13.6%. Declining: -13.6% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 900 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) | 67.7% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 32.3% |

## What the work involves

- Inspect products to ensure that the quality standards and specifications are met.
- Confer with coworkers to obtain information about orders, processes, or problems.
- Notify supervisors of mechanical malfunctions.
- Start machines, monitor operations, and make adjustments as needed.
- Clean, oil, and lubricate machines, using air hoses, cleaning solutions, rags, oilcans, and grease guns.
- Repair or replace worn or defective parts or components, using hand tools.
- Record information about work completed and machine settings.
- Adjust machine controls, such as heating mechanisms, tensions, or speeds, to produce specified products.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — 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.

- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Maintenance — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Repairing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Production and Processing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Design — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 2.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Manual Dexterity — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Selective Attention — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Finger Dexterity — 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 | 6.36 |
| C — Conventional | 4.49 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.56 |
| I — Investigative | 1.55 |
| A — Artistic | 1.51 |
| S — Social | 1.22 |

### 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 | 88.0 |
| ISFJ | 75.9 |
| ESTJ | 74.5 |
| ISTP | 73.1 |
| INTJ | 62.4 |

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.

- [Cutting and Slicing Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cutting-and-slicing-machine-setter-operator-and-tender) — median $46,570
- [Paper Goods Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/paper-goods-machine-setter-operator-and-tender) — median $50,270
- [Woodworking Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender, Except Sawing](https://nuecareer.com/careers/woodworking-machine-setter-operator-and-tender) — median $43,380
- [Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setter, Operator, and Tender, Metal and Plastic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/grinding-lapping-polishing-and-buffing-machine-tool-setter-operator-and-tender-metal-and-plastic) — median $46,550
- [Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender, Metal and Plastic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cutting-punching-and-press-machine-setter-operator-and-tender-metal-and-plastic) — median $46,330
- [Cutter and Trimmer, Hand](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cutter-and-trimmer-hand) — median $38,020
- [Milling and Planing Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender, Metal and Plastic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/milling-and-planing-machine-setter-operator-and-tender-metal-and-plastic) — median $52,800
- [Adhesive Bonding Machine Operator and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/adhesive-bonding-machine-operator-and-tender) — median $46,460
- [Machine Feeder and Offbearer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/machine-feeder-and-offbearer) — median $41,220
- [Multiple Machine Tool Setter, Operator, and Tender, Metal and Plastic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/multiple-machine-tool-setter-operator-and-tender-metal-and-plastic) — median $47,180

## 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/textile-cutting-machine-setter-operator-and-tender