Career
Machine feeders and offbearers
Feed materials into machines and remove finished products.
$41,220
Median pay
-13.1%
Job growth, 2025–35
4,000
Openings a year
No formal educational credential
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 materials and products for defects, and to ensure conformance to specifications.
- Record production and operational data, such as amount of materials processed.
- Push dual control buttons and move controls to start, stop, or adjust machinery and equipment.
- Weigh or measure materials or products to ensure conformance to specifications.
- Identify and mark materials, products, and samples, following instructions.
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 materials and products for defects, and to ensure conformance to specifications.”
Development
What would you need to build over the next 5–10 years?
Operations Monitoring, Monitoring, Reading Comprehension, Quality Control Analysis.
Trade-offs
What does it ask of you in exchange?
No degree beyond high school, though short-term on-the-job training is typical, for a median of $41,220 a year and 4,000 openings nationally each year.
Paths in
Degrees that lead here
- NO MATCHCIP 99.9999
Paths across
Careers that use similar skills
- Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders$46,570 · -0.9%
- Adhesive Bonding Machine Operators and Tenders$46,460 · +1.3%
- Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders$45,760 · +1.5%
- Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing$43,380 · -2.5%
- Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders$50,270 · -3.6%
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.