A carpenter/labor construct, repair, and install building frameworks, fixtures, and structures created from wood and related materials. These include walls, windows, floors, cabinets, door frames, and doors, among others. They perform general maintenance tasks and help in mechanical and carpentry-related jobs. Furthermore, they operate forklifts, wheel loaders, and related equipment. Also, they follow blueprints and building plans to meet their customer's needs. Additionally, they instruct and direct laborers and other construction helpers.
This personnel needs only a high school diploma and on-the-job training. While certifications are not necessarily essential to getting a job, there are certificate programs that teach carpenters the required basics. You must possess technical, attention to detail, communication, and time management skills. Additionally, applicants need manual dexterity, a good sense of balance, and hand-eye coordination. Also, you must be physically fit.
A carpenter/labor makes an average salary of $30,279 per year or $14.56 per hour. The range vary between $25,000 and $36,000.
What is a Carpenter/Labour?
What Does a Carpenter/Labour Do
There are certain skills that many carpenter/labours have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed business skills, detail oriented and dexterity.
How To Become a Carpenter/Labour
If you're interested in becoming a carpenter/labour, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 15.1% of carpenter/labours have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 0.7% of carpenter/labours have master's degrees. Even though some carpenter/labours have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Carpenter/Labour Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of carpenter you might progress to a role such as foreman eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title project superintendent.
Average Salary for a Carpenter/Labour
What Am I Worth?
Roles and Types of Carpenter/Labour
The role of a carpenter/labour includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general carpenter/labour responsibilities:
- Helping install foundations, walls, floors, ceilings,
- Follow blueprints and building plans to meet the needs of clients install structures
- The ideal candidate will have knowledge of commercial construction
There are several types of carpenter/labour, including:
Carpenter
Role:
With only a high school diploma, you could be making an average of $48,330 a year by becoming a carpenter. The range of projects they work on range from installing kitchen cabinets to building highways and bridges.
- Average Salary: $41,748
- Degree: High School Diploma
Helper
Role:
You could be asked to work in the garden or maintain the lawn, but most of your tasks will revolve around housekeeping. Cooking, cleaning, and running various errands will be on your to-do list, like grocery shopping, picking up kids from school, cleaning the pool, whatever your employer might think of, really. As long as it is legal, you should be up for it.
You will be coming in and out of other people's homes sharing their personal space, sometimes even in a live-in arrangement, so being friendly, clean, and reliable is a must. You need to build a good relationship with the family you help and, as usual, building trust takes time. Just make sure your working hours are respected, and you get the amount of free time you had agreed upon. Painting an image of what an overworked and cranky helper might do will definitely set the grounds for negotiation.
- Average Salary: $31,331
- Degree: High School Diploma
Journeyman
Role:
Daily, a journeyman is tasked with manual work involving areas such as plumbing, electrical, and carpentry. This includes developing maintenance procedures, repairing electrical control systems, and conducting plumbing installations. Besides that, they also perform machinery operations, develop quality assurance methods, and facilitate material management activities.
Employers require a minimum high school diploma for a journeyman, with the remaining education happening on the job. A journeyman will also need to demonstrate 1-2 years of work experience. This role earns an average of $22 per hour.
- Average Salary: $57,682
- Degree: Associate Degree
States With The Most Carpenter/Labour Jobs
Mouse over a state to see the number of active carpenter/labour jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where carpenter/labours earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Number Of Carpenter/Labour Jobs By State
Rank | State | Number of Jobs | Average Salary |
---|---|---|---|
1 | California | 739 | $52,185 |
2 | Florida | 730 | $31,140 |
3 | Texas | 688 | $33,299 |
4 | North Carolina | 468 | $31,828 |
5 | Virginia | 436 | $37,771 |
6 | Georgia | 407 | $30,667 |
7 | Pennsylvania | 398 | $35,383 |
8 | Ohio | 395 | $34,583 |
9 | New York | 322 | $40,557 |
10 | Maryland | 320 | $36,473 |
11 | Tennessee | 304 | $32,028 |
12 | Washington | 279 | $43,420 |
13 | Iowa | 273 | $31,968 |
14 | Illinois | 250 | $38,589 |
15 | Colorado | 248 | $35,826 |
16 | Indiana | 241 | $37,508 |
17 | Arizona | 237 | $32,173 |
18 | Minnesota | 236 | $41,254 |
19 | Massachusetts | 234 | $42,010 |
20 | Michigan | 233 | $36,244 |
21 | Wisconsin | 227 | $35,652 |
22 | South Carolina | 224 | $31,105 |
23 | Oregon | 208 | $36,310 |
24 | New Jersey | 198 | $40,149 |
25 | Kansas | 189 | $29,793 |
26 | Missouri | 188 | $35,956 |
27 | Utah | 183 | $30,017 |
28 | Alabama | 180 | $33,409 |
29 | Louisiana | 152 | $31,016 |
30 | Montana | 147 | $29,857 |
31 | Oklahoma | 145 | $30,894 |
32 | Kentucky | 136 | $33,206 |
33 | West Virginia | 133 | $27,334 |
34 | Nebraska | 116 | $30,171 |
35 | Idaho | 110 | $26,860 |
36 | Connecticut | 105 | $42,573 |
37 | Mississippi | 93 | $29,771 |
38 | Nevada | 88 | $36,148 |
39 | Maine | 88 | $31,112 |
40 | Arkansas | 87 | $31,848 |
41 | New Hampshire | 78 | $39,266 |
42 | South Dakota | 72 | $30,182 |
43 | New Mexico | 64 | $27,180 |
44 | North Dakota | 59 | $33,483 |
45 | Alaska | 58 | $38,151 |
46 | Delaware | 53 | $38,297 |
47 | Wyoming | 52 | $35,607 |
48 | Vermont | 42 | $40,251 |
49 | Hawaii | 42 | $38,879 |
50 | Rhode Island | 38 | $40,942 |
Top Skills For a Carpenter/Labour
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 17.7% of carpenter/labours listed roofing on their resume, but soft skills such as business skills and detail oriented are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Carpenter/Labour Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Carpenter/Labour templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Carpenter/Labour resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Carpenter/Labour Demographics
Carpenter/Labour Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among carpenter/labours, 4.0% of them are women, while 96.0% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among carpenter/labours is White, which makes up 62.2% of all carpenter/labours.
- The most common foreign language among carpenter/labours is Spanish at 78.8%.
Online Courses For Carpenter/Labour That You May Like
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See More on Udemy2. OSHA Workplace Safety (General Industry 6 Hr Class)
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See More on UdemyBest States For a Carpenter/Labour
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a carpenter/labour. The best states for people in this position are California, Washington, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Carpenter/labours make the most in California with an average salary of $52,185. Whereas in Washington and Connecticut, they would average $43,420 and $42,573, respectively. While carpenter/labours would only make an average of $42,010 in Massachusetts, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Vermont
$40,251
Avg. Salary
2. Washington
$43,420
Avg. Salary
3. California
$52,185
Avg. Salary
How Do Carpenter/Labour Rate Their Jobs?

5.0
5.0

What do you like the most about working as Carpenter/Labour?
I like to see the end results. I like to take pride in my work. Show MoreWhat do you NOT like?
I like everything about it early hours good pay benefits and it’s good work out Show MoreTop Carpenter/Labour Employers
Most Common Employers For Carpenter/Labour
Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Turner Construction | $45,701 | $21.97 | 12 |
2 | Clark Construction of Ridgefield | $45,535 | $21.89 | 13 |
3 | White Construction | $45,533 | $21.89 | 7 |
4 | Cleveland Construction | $45,453 | $21.85 | 7 |
5 | Baker Concrete Construction | $45,017 | $21.64 | 7 |
6 | Hill Construction Company | $44,909 | $21.59 | 7 |
7 | Wilson Construction | $44,877 | $21.58 | 9 |
8 | Balfour Beatty plc | $43,935 | $21.12 | 7 |
9 | Cajun Industries | $43,723 | $21.02 | 9 |
10 | Messer Construction Co. | $42,959 | $20.65 | 7 |