Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers
US occupation · SOC 51-9071
Job titles people report: Appraiser, Artisan Jeweler, Bench Jeweler, Caster, Gemologist, Goldsmith, Jeweler, Polisher, Silversmith, Stone Setter
Pay and outlook
- Median annual wage, May 2025
- $52,540
- Half earn more, half earn less
- Middle half earn
- $39,520 – $69,810
- 25th to 75th percentile
- People employed, May 2025
- 22,440
- Wage and salary jobs (OEWS)
- Projected change, 2025–35
- -3.2%
- Shrinking (below 0%)
- Openings a year (projected)
- 3,700
- New jobs plus replacing people who leave
- Typical education to enter
- High school diploma or equivalent
- BLS
- All figures are for the United States as a whole. Pay varies a lot by state and city.
- Wages are for everyone working in the occupation in May 2025, at every career stage. They are not starting salaries or figures for new graduates.
- Growth and openings are BLS projections for 2025–35. They are estimates, not promises. Openings include jobs that open up when people retire or change occupation, not just new jobs.
What the work involves
Design, fabricate, adjust, repair, or appraise jewelry, gold, silver, other precious metals, or gems.
Main tasks
- Clean and polish metal items and jewelry pieces, using jewelers' tools, polishing wheels, and chemical baths.
- Smooth soldered joints and rough spots, using hand files and emery paper, and polish smoothed areas with polishing wheels or buffing wire.
- Create jewelry from materials such as gold, silver, platinum, and precious or semiprecious stones.
- Cut and file pieces of jewelry such as rings, brooches, bracelets, and lockets.
- Examine assembled or finished products to ensure conformance to specifications, using magnifying glasses or precision measuring instruments.
- Make repairs, such as enlarging or reducing ring sizes, soldering pieces of jewelry together, and replacing broken clasps and mountings.
- Compute costs of labor and materials to determine production costs of products and articles.
- Position stones and metal pieces, and set, mount, and secure items in place, using setting and hand tools.
More specific O*NET® occupations under this one: Gem and Diamond Workers.
Description and tasks from the O*NET® 31.0 Database.
Getting in
- Typical education to enter (BLS)
- High school diploma or equivalent
- Training once hired: long-term on-the-job training
- O*NET Job Zone 3
- Medium preparation
- Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
Interests it suits
The strongest of the six O*NET interest types for this occupation, highest first. The short glosses are ours.
- Realistic: hands-on work with tools, machines, plants or animals
- Artistic: creating, designing and self-expression
- Conventional: organising information, records and procedures
Fields of study that lead here
From the federal CIP–SOC crosswalk, which links 3 programmes to this occupation. A link means the programme prepares people for this kind of work. It doesn't mean the programme is required, or that it's the only route.
Visual & Performing Arts
- Jewelry Arts
- Metal Arts
Find colleges that fit you with our matcher: choose Visual & Performing Arts at the Major step.
Where many students take visual & performing arts
- Savannah College of Art and DesignSavannah, GA · 42% of degrees · 15,243 undergraduates
- Southern New Hampshire UniversityManchester, NH · 4% of degrees · 163,164 undergraduates
- University of Central FloridaOrlando, FL · 8% of degrees · 59,146 undergraduates
- New York UniversityNew York, NY · 16% of degrees · 28,663 undergraduates
- The New SchoolNew York, NY · 68% of degrees · 6,563 undergraduates
- Berklee College of MusicBoston, MA · 57% of degrees · 7,468 undergraduates
Ordered by the field's share of degrees awarded times undergraduate enrolment (College Scorecard), among colleges with at least 1,000 undergraduates. Online universities are included. It's a rough measure of how big the programme is. It says nothing about quality. The share counts every programme in the field, not only the ones linked to this career.
Other fields
Our college matcher doesn't offer this field as a major, so we can't suggest colleges for it here.
Mechanic and Repair Technologies/Technicians
- Watchmaking and Jewelrymaking
Related careers
Related occupations from the O*NET database, in its order.
- Etchers and Engravers
$43,310 median · -0.7% projected
- Craft Artists
$46,080 median · +2% projected
- Shoe and Leather Workers and Repairers
$37,800 median · -6.5% projected
- Tool and Die Makers
$64,050 median · -9.2% projected
- Patternmakers, Metal and Plastic
$58,000 median · -22.8% projected
- Tool Grinders, Filers, and Sharpeners
$50,060 median · -6.8% projected
Sources
This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. CollegeMatcher has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET 31.0 Database · CC BY 4.0
Changes: we show the core tasks in the O*NET database with the highest importance ratings (up to eight, in that order), the top three O*NET interest types by score, and shortened Job Zone names. Titles, descriptions and task text are unchanged.
Wages: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Projections, typical entry education and training: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025–35. Fields of study: NCES and BLS CIP 2020–SOC 2018 Crosswalk. All public domain. OEWS · Employment Projections · CIP–SOC crosswalk