Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing

Pay and outlook

Median annual wage, May 2025

$43,380

Half earn more, half earn less

Middle half earn

$37,100 – $48,720

25th to 75th percentile

People employed, May 2025

61,420

Wage and salary jobs (OEWS)

Projected change, 2025–35

-2.5%

Shrinking (below 0%)

Openings a year (projected)

5,300

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

Set up, operate, or tend woodworking machines, such as drill presses, lathes, shapers, routers, sanders, planers, and wood nailing machines. May operate computer numerically controlled (CNC) equipment.

Main tasks

• Set up, program, operate, or tend computerized or manual woodworking machines, such as drill presses, lathes, shapers, routers, sanders, planers, or wood-nailing machines.
• Examine finished workpieces for smoothness, shape, angle, depth-of-cut, or conformity to specifications and verify dimensions, visually and using hands, rules, calipers, templates, or gauges.
• Start machines, adjust controls, and make trial cuts to ensure that machinery is operating properly.
• Monitor operation of machines and make adjustments to correct problems and ensure conformance to specifications.
• Examine raw woodstock for defects and to ensure conformity to size and other specification standards.
• Adjust machine tables or cutting devices and set controls on machines to produce specified cuts or operations.
• Install and adjust blades, cutterheads, boring-bits, or sanding-belts, using hand tools and rules.
• Change alignment and adjustment of sanding, cutting, or boring machine guides to prevent defects in finished products, using hand tools.

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: moderate-term on-the-job training

O*NET Job Zone 1–2

Little to some preparation

Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.

Fields of study that lead here

From the federal CIP–SOC crosswalk, which links 2 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.

Related careers

Related occupations from the O*NET database, in its order.

• Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood

  $42,770 median · -1% projected

• Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

  $46,550 median · -10.8% projected

• Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

  $52,800 median · -13.2% projected

• Lathe and Turning Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

  $50,620 median · -11.3% projected

• Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

  $46,330 median · -10.5% projected

• Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

  $47,180 median · +0.6% projected