---
title: "Welder"
description: "Use hand-welding, flame-cutting, hand-soldering, or brazing equipment to weld or join metal components or to fill holes, indentations, or seams of…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/welder"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Welder

**Category:** Production · **SOC code:** 51-4121 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 51-4121.00

Use hand-welding, flame-cutting, hand-soldering, or brazing equipment to weld or join metal components or to fill holes, indentations, or seams of fabricated metal products.

Also advertised as: Assembly Line Brazer; Brazer; Fabrication Welder; Maintenance Welder; MIG Welder (Metal Inert Gas Welder); Solderer; TIG Welder (Tungsten Inert Gas Welder); Welder.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $53,750 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $25.84/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $39,240 to $77,530, with the middle half between $46,790 and $63,010
- **Total US employment:** 416,210
- **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:** +2.2% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 45,600 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 45/100 — 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 416,210 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $39,240 |
| 25th | $46,790 |
| 50th (median) | $53,750 |
| 75th | $63,010 |
| 90th | $77,530 |
| Mean (average) | $56,760 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| AK | $80,840 | $78,977 | 790 |
| HI | $79,000 | $71,850 | 520 |
| CT | $64,880 | $62,619 | 1,790 |
| WY | $63,820 | $68,852 | 1,850 |
| WA | $63,020 | $58,890 | 7,720 |
| MA | $62,570 | $59,164 | 2,830 |
| NH | $62,360 | $59,867 | 1,110 |
| LA | $62,250 | $70,573 | 13,690 |
| ME | $62,220 | $64,111 | 1,690 |
| ND | $62,000 | $69,695 | 2,590 |
| NV | $61,520 | $61,533 | 1,600 |
| VT | $60,890 | $62,159 | 340 |
| MD | $60,310 | $57,461 | 2,850 |
| MN | $60,280 | $61,123 | 9,270 |
| DC | $60,180 | $54,758 | 280 |

39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/welder/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/welder.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 457,300 in the 2024–2034 base year to 467,200 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 9,900 jobs, or +2.2%. About as fast as average: 2.2% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 45,600 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## 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 | 53.6% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 20.8% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 11.6% |
| Some College Courses | 11.3% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 1.8% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 0.9% |

## What the work involves

- Operate safety equipment and use safe work habits.
- Recognize, set up, and operate hand and power tools common to the welding trade, such as shielded metal arc and gas metal arc welding equipment.
- Weld components in flat, vertical, or overhead positions.
- Detect faulty operation of equipment or defective materials and notify supervisors.
- Prepare all material surfaces to be welded, ensuring that there is no loose or thick scale, slag, rust, moisture, grease, or other foreign matter.
- Position and secure workpieces, using hoists, cranes, wire, and banding machines or hand tools.
- Mark or tag material with proper job number, piece marks, and other identifying marks as required.
- Chip or grind off excess weld, slag, or spatter, using hand scrapers or power chippers, portable grinders, or arc-cutting equipment.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- 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
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — 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.

- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Production and Processing — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Design — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Engineering and Technology — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Finger Dexterity — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Manual Dexterity — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Control Precision — 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 | 7.00 |
| C — Conventional | 3.65 |
| I — Investigative | 2.08 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.53 |
| A — Artistic | 1.40 |
| S — Social | 1.08 |

### 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 | 86.7 |
| ISTP | 77.1 |
| ISFJ | 71.1 |
| ESTJ | 71.1 |
| INTJ | 65.5 |

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.

- [Welding, Soldering, and Brazing Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/welding-soldering-and-brazing-machine-setter-operator-and-tender) — median $47,920
- [Structural Metal Fabricator and Fitter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/structural-metal-fabricator-and-fitter) — median $51,330
- [Aircraft Structure, Surface, Rigging, and Systems Assembler](https://nuecareer.com/careers/aircraft-structure-surface-rigging-and-systems-assembler) — median $65,380
- [Engine and Other Machine Assembler](https://nuecareer.com/careers/engine-and-other-machine-assembler) — median $53,710
- [Boilermaker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/boilermaker) — median $76,410
- [Electric Motor, Power Tool, and Related Repairer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electric-motor-power-tool-and-related-repairer) — median $56,210
- [Woodworking Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender, Except Sawing](https://nuecareer.com/careers/woodworking-machine-setter-operator-and-tender) — median $43,380
- [Tool and Die Maker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/tool-and-die-maker) — median $64,050
- [Electrical and Electronic Equipment Assembler](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-and-electronic-equipment-assembler) — median $45,930
- [Tool Grinder, Filer, and Sharpener](https://nuecareer.com/careers/tool-grinder-filer-and-sharpener) — median $50,060

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 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, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **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 30.3 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/welder