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

What is a sawyer 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 sawyer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $15.77 an hour? That's $32,810 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 3% and produce 8,200 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreSawyerUS Average

Salary

2.6

Avg. Salary $32,810

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.0

Growth rate 3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

7.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 1.03%

Asian 1.06%

Black or African American 7.79%

Hispanic or Latino 18.26%

Unknown 4.80%

White 67.05%

Gender

female 7.35%

male 92.65%

Age - 45

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 - 45

Stress level

5.0

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.5

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.1

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a sawyer

Explore sawyer education requirements

Most common sawyer degrees

High School Diploma

50.7 %

Associate

16.8 %

Bachelor's

14.5 %

Start to develop specific sawyer skills

Skills	Percentages
Safety Procedures	83.16%
Tape Measure	4.20%
CNC	1.83%
Load Trucks	1.74%
Equipment Maintenance	1.44%

Complete relevant sawyer training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New sawyers 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 sawyer based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real sawyer resumes.

Research sawyer duties and responsibilities

Provide guidance and leadership to manage maintenance and activities, equipment inspection, overhauling, repairing, and installing mechanisms.
Fall harvest Christmas trees, summer maintenance shearing/pruning, fertilizing fields and previously clear cut wild forest terrain.
Operate table see, bender, butt welder, lathe and CNC router.
Provide leadership, management and training to see teams for wildland fire suppression.

Prepare your sawyer resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your sawyer 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 sawyer resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable sawyer resume templates

Build a professional sawyer 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 sawyer resume.