How To Become A Lumper: What It Is and Career Path

What is a lumper and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a lumper. For example, did you know that they make an average of $14.26 an hour? That's $29,651 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 358,300 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreLumperUS Average

Salary

2.3

Avg. Salary $29,651

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.4

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

8.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.13%

Asian 5.90%

Black or African American 11.53%

Hispanic or Latino 22.71%

Unknown 5.29%

White 53.44%

Gender

female 6.11%

male 93.89%

Age - 39

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 39

Stress level

6.4

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

4.7

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.4

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a lumper

Explore lumper education requirements

Most common lumper degrees

High School Diploma

63.3 %

Diploma

17.7 %

Associate

9.0 %

Start to develop specific lumper skills

Skills	Percentages
Pallets	58.49%
Electric Pallet Jack	6.59%
Safety Standards	6.04%
Unload Trucks	4.18%
Safety Rules	3.31%

Complete relevant lumper training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New lumpers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a lumper based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real lumper resumes.

Research lumper duties and responsibilities

help loading/unloading trailers with pallet jacks and dollies
Separate shipments of food/utensils onto pallets to be transport elsewhere.
Distribute production materials to designate locations on assembly lines observing the first-in-first-out (FIFO) inventory control practice.
Work in shipping/receiving department operating motorize pallet jack used to load and unload semi-trailers.

Prepare your lumper resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your lumper resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a lumper resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable lumper resume templates

Build a professional lumper resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your lumper resume.

Apply for lumper jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a lumper job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do lumpers rate their job?

5/5

Based on 1 ratings

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Lumper reviews

5.0

A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2020

Pros

Stay busy stay in shape early hours no one ever died from a little hard work good lumpers can throw 1000 pcs an hour off the floor of a trailer on to a pallet or skid.all you hear is slaming off the wall of the trailer your unloading.

Cons

I like it all whats not to like I like it so much that I owned and operated qualified material handlers inc denver colorado for 10 yrs