Manufacturing laborers work in factories or other production sites, generally taking care of one specific task only. They work the assembly line or operate production machinery, setting up, starting, and stopping equipment. They might measure, mix, and feed materials into the machines and monitor them to make sure the products meet quality demands. Assembling parts of products may be part of the job as well.
Working in this position, you will be responsible for cleaning and maintaining machinery as well. You will make sure your working area is clean and up to speed with safety regulations. You will have to remove faulty products from the production line, and you might also be responsible for recording various production data used later on for quality reports.
You can take on this role with a high school diploma, as this is an entry-level job, and training is generally provided once you get hired. You will need physical stamina and the ability to endure repetitive tasks for long hours, typically working in rotating shifts. You can expect to make around $13.41 per hour in this position.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a manufacturing labour. For example, did you know that they make an average of $13.15 an hour? That's $27,358 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 4% and produce 156,200 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many manufacturing 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 listening skills, physical strength and customer-service skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a manufacturing labour, we found that a lot of resumes listed 37.3% of manufacturing labours included hand tools, while 18.5% of resumes included tape measure, and 11.1% of resumes included manual labor. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the manufacturing labour job title. But what industry to start with? Most manufacturing labours actually find jobs in the manufacturing and retail industries.
If you're interested in becoming a manufacturing labour, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 14.0% of manufacturing labours have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 1.0% of manufacturing labours have master's degrees. Even though some manufacturing labours have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a manufacturing labour. When we researched the most common majors for a manufacturing labour, we found that they most commonly earn high school diploma degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on manufacturing labour resumes include associate degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a manufacturing labour. In fact, many manufacturing labour jobs require experience in a role such as cashier. Meanwhile, many manufacturing labours also have previous career experience in roles such as machine operator or customer service representative.