Production Machinist Overview
Production Machinist Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a production machinist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $17.91 an hour? That's $37,252 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 1% and produce 5,400 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Production Machinist Do
There are certain skills that many production machinists 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 analytical skills, manual dexterity and math skills and computer application experience.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a production machinist, we found that a lot of resumes listed 25.1% of production machinists included cnc, while 14.8% of resumes included hand tools, and 5.8% of resumes included spc. 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 production machinist job title. But what industry to start with? Most production machinists actually find jobs in the manufacturing and automotive industries.
How To Become a Production Machinist
If you're interested in becoming a production machinist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 13.9% of production machinists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 0.3% of production machinists have master's degrees. Even though some production machinists 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 production machinist. When we researched the most common majors for a production machinist, we found that they most commonly earn high school diploma degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on production machinist resumes include bachelor's degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a production machinist. In fact, many production machinist jobs require experience in a role such as machinist. Meanwhile, many production machinists also have previous career experience in roles such as machine operator or numerical control operator.
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Production Machinist 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 tool and die maker you might progress to a role such as numerical control programmer eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title manufacturing engineering manager.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Production Machinist
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Aerotek Production Machinists Production Machinists | Aerotek Aerotek | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $27,13101/29/2021 $27,131 |
Tenneco Production Machinists-Weekend Shift, Pay Range Dependent On Experience Production Machinists-Weekend Shift, Pay Range Dependent On Experience | Tenneco Tenneco | 01/19/2021 01/19/2021 | $37,58701/19/2021 $37,587 |
Tenneco/Federal Mogul Motorparts Production Machinists-Weekend Shift, Pay Range Dependent On Experience Production Machinists-Weekend Shift, Pay Range Dependent On Experience | Tenneco/Federal Mogul Motorparts Tenneco/Federal Mogul Motorparts | 01/16/2021 01/16/2021 | $37,58701/16/2021 $37,587 |
Peopleready Production Assistant Machinist Production Assistant Machinist | Peopleready Peopleready | 11/29/2020 11/29/2020 | $37,56611/29/2020 $37,566 |
Knorr-Bremse Production Machinist (15746) Production Machinist (15746) | Knorr-Bremse Knorr-Bremse | 10/18/2020 10/18/2020 | $40,80110/18/2020 $40,801 |
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Top Skills For a Production Machinist
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, 25.1% of production machinists listed cnc on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and manual dexterity are important as well.
- CNC, 25.1%
- Hand Tools, 14.8%
- SPC, 5.8%
- Machine Parts, 4.6%
- Shop Equipment, 3.6%
- Other Skills, 46.1% See All Production Machinist Skills
Best States For a Production Machinist
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a production machinist. The best states for people in this position are New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Washington. Production machinists make the most in New Jersey with an average salary of $47,424. Whereas in Massachusetts and Maryland, they would average $46,592 and $46,490, respectively. While production machinists would only make an average of $45,748 in Washington, 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
$44,334
Avg. Salary
2. Minnesota
$43,577
Avg. Salary
3. Oregon
$44,915
Avg. Salary
How Do Production Machinist Rate Their Jobs?
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