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| Median Wage (USD, 2025) | Projected Job Openings (2025-2035) | Projected Growth (2025-2035) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Statistics | $47720 | 6500 | 1.2% |
| State Statistics | - | - | - |
| City Statistics | - | - | - |
Experience Requirements Overview
- Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed
- Some occupations may need little or no previous experience; others require several months to a year of experience. For example, landscaping and groundskeeping workers might require very little training or previous experience, while agricultural equipment operators can benefit from on-the job training.
- Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.
- Ranges from a few days to one year of on-the-job training.
Education, Training and Experience
Required Level of Education: High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED)
Related Work Experience: N.A.
On-Site or In-Plant Training: Up to and including 1 month
On-the-Job Training: Over 6 months, up to and including 1 year
Detailed Work Activities
- Inspect metal, plastic, or composite products.
- Measure dimensions of completed products or workpieces to verify conformance to specifications.
- Determine production equipment settings.
- Select production equipment according to product specifications.
- Mount attachments or tools onto production equipment.
Work Values
Achievement
Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment. Corresponding needs are Ability Utilization and Achievement.
Working Conditions
Recognition
Relationships
Support
Independence
Tasks
- Measure and examine extruded products to locate defects and to check for conformance to specifications, adjusting controls as necessary to alter products.
- Start machines and set controls to regulate vacuum, air pressure, sizing rings, and temperature, and to synchronize speed of extrusion.
- Determine setup procedures and select machine dies and parts, according to specifications.
- Troubleshoot, maintain, and make minor repairs to equipment.
- Change dies on extruding machines, according to production line changes.
- Load machine hoppers with mixed materials, using augers, or stuff rolls of plastic dough into machine cylinders.
- Install dies, machine screws, and sizing rings on machines that extrude thermoplastic or metal materials.
- Operate shearing mechanisms to cut rods to specified lengths.
- Maintain an inventory of materials.
- Clean work areas.
- Adjust controls to draw or press metal into specified shapes and diameters.
- Replace worn dies when products vary from specifications.
- Test physical properties of products with testing devices such as acid-bath testers, burst testers, and impact testers.
- Reel extruded products into rolls of specified lengths and weights.
- Weigh and mix pelletized, granular, or powdered thermoplastic materials and coloring pigments.
- Select nozzles, spacers, and wire guides, according to diameters and lengths of rods.
Work Styles
Innovation
A tendency to be inventive, to be imaginative, and to adopt new perspectives on ways to accomplish work.
Achievement Orientation
Intellectual Curiosity
Tolerance for Ambiguity
Initiative
Adaptability
Self-Confidence
Perseverance
Leadership Orientation
Humility
Sincerity
Empathy
Cooperation
Optimism
Social Orientation
Cautiousness
Attention to Detail
Dependability
Integrity
Stress Tolerance
Self-Control
Data Source: 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. This page includes Employment Projections program, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.