Career
Logging equipment operators
Run the heavy machines that harvest timber.
$49,740
Median pay
-3.8%
Job growth, 2025–35
3,700
Openings a year
High school diploma or equivalent
Typical education
None required
Typical time after high school
Here's what you actually need to know.
The work
What people in this job do
- Inspect equipment for safety prior to use, and perform necessary basic maintenance tasks.
- Control hydraulic tractors equipped with tree clamps and booms to lift, swing, and bunch sheared trees.
- Grade logs according to characteristics such as knot size and straightness, and according to established industry or company standards.
- Drive straight or articulated tractors equipped with accessories such as bulldozer blades, grapples, logging arches, cable winches, and crane booms to skid, load, unload, or stack logs, pull stumps, or clear brush.
- Drive crawler or wheeled tractors to drag or transport logs from felling sites to log landing areas for processing and loading.
The outlook
How the forecast changed this year
The deeper question
What kind of person does this path ask you to become?
What this work centers on
O*NET interest profile, scored 1–7.
The work
Do you want most of your days spent on objects & tools, then information & systems?
Responsibility
Are you willing to be the one responsible for this?
“Inspect equipment for safety prior to use, and perform necessary basic maintenance tasks.”
Development
What would you need to build over the next 5–10 years?
Operation and Control, Operations Monitoring, Equipment Maintenance, Troubleshooting.
Trade-offs
What does it ask of you in exchange?
No degree beyond high school, though moderate-term on-the-job training is typical, for a median of $49,740 a year and 3,700 openings nationally each year.
Paths in
Degrees that lead here
- Construction/Heavy Equipment/Earthmoving Equipment OperationCIP 49.0202
Paths across
Careers that use similar skills
- Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators$59,850 · +4.6%
- Continuous Mining Machine Operators$61,810 · +3.2%
- Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining$74,500 · -15.8%
- Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining$57,430 · +1.0%
- Hoist and Winch Operators$56,450 · +0.2%
Ask anything about this career.
“Would this make sense if I don't want to sit at a desk all day?” Answers will come from the sources on this page, with citations. Coming soon.
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Sources
- BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- BLS Employment Projections, 2024–34 (archived), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- O*NET 31.0 Database (August 2026), National Center for O*NET Development / U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 Crosswalk, NCES and BLS. Retrieved 2026-10-01.