---
title: "Wellhead Pumper"
description: "Operate power pumps and auxiliary equipment to produce flow of oil or gas from wells in oil field."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/wellhead-pumper"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Wellhead Pumper

**Category:** Transportation and Material Moving · **SOC code:** 53-7073 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 53-7073.00

Operate power pumps and auxiliary equipment to produce flow of oil or gas from wells in oil field.

Also advertised as: Field Operator; Lease Attendant; Lease Operator; Oilfield Plant Operator; Pumper; Well Field Technician; Well Head Pumper; Well Tender.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $69,960 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $33.63/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $44,100 to $98,170, with the middle half between $52,330 and $82,200
- **Total US employment:** 17,990
- **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:** -2.0% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 1,700 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 57/100 — 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 17,990 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $44,100 |
| 25th | $52,330 |
| 50th (median) | $69,960 |
| 75th | $82,200 |
| 90th | $98,170 |
| Mean (average) | $70,370 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ND | $79,820 | $89,727 | 1,540 |
| NM | $78,010 | $84,599 | 1,060 |
| LA | $76,930 | $87,215 | 110 |
| TX | $75,860 | $78,160 | 10,250 |
| CO | $72,700 | $70,547 | 370 |
| AR | $64,650 | $74,364 | 90 |
| CA | $64,430 | $58,192 | 160 |
| MS | $62,560 | $71,947 | 80 |
| KS | $62,400 | $69,281 | 620 |
| OK | $61,380 | $69,875 | 770 |
| UT | $59,970 | $60,659 | 130 |
| MT | $57,830 | $61,102 | 90 |
| WY | $57,200 | $61,710 | 490 |
| WV | $52,170 | $58,292 | 660 |
| IL | $51,440 | $51,462 | 240 |

4 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 19 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/wellhead-pumper/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/wellhead-pumper.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 18,400 in the 2025–2035 base year to 18,000 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 400 jobs, or -2.0%. Declining: -2.0% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 1,700 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:** Less than 5 years.
- **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) | 80.5% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 10.9% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 7.4% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 1.3% |

## What the work involves

- Gauge oil and gas production.
- Monitor pumps and flow lines for gas and fluid leaks.
- Operate engines and pumps to shut off wells according to production schedules, and to switch flow of oil into storage tanks.
- Monitor control panels during pumping operations to ensure that materials are being pumped at the correct pressure, density, rate, and concentration.
- Perform routine maintenance on vehicles and equipment.
- Repair gas and oil meters and gauges.
- Start compressor engines and divert oil from storage tanks into compressor units and auxiliary equipment to recover natural gas from oil.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Critical Thinking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — 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 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.3 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 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Maintenance — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Repairing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Mechanical — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Chemistry — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 2.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Control Precision — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Multilimb Coordination — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reaction Time — 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 | 6.92 |
| C — Conventional | 4.29 |
| I — Investigative | 2.26 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.77 |
| S — Social | 1.11 |
| A — Artistic | 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 | 90.0 |
| ISTP | 76.5 |
| ESTJ | 75.3 |
| ISFJ | 73.9 |
| INTJ | 65.6 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Petroleum Pump System Operator, Refinery Operator, and Gauger](https://nuecareer.com/careers/petroleum-pump-system-operator-refinery-operator-and-gauger) — median $96,710
- [Pump Operator, Except Wellhead Pumpers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pump-operator) — median $61,770
- [Gas Plant Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/gas-plant-operator) — median $87,820
- [Rotary Drill Operator, Oil and Gas](https://nuecareer.com/careers/rotary-drill-operator-oil-and-gas) — median $67,890
- [Oil and Gas Roustabout](https://nuecareer.com/careers/oil-and-gas-roustabout) — median $46,960
- [Gas Compressor and Gas Pumping Station Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/gas-compressor-and-gas-pumping-station-operator) — median $77,320
- [Service Unit Operator, Oil and Gas](https://nuecareer.com/careers/service-unit-operator-oil-and-gas) — median $58,160
- [Power Plant Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/power-plant-operator) — median $102,040
- [Hydroelectric Plant Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/hydroelectric-plant-technician) — median $102,040
- [Stationary Engineer and Boiler Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/stationary-engineer-and-boiler-operator) — median $78,620

## 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/wellhead-pumper