Career
Tree trimmers and pruners
Trim and remove trees, often from great heights.
$50,960
Median pay
+4.2%
Job growth, 2025–35
7,900
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
- Operate shredding and chipping equipment, and feed limbs and brush into the machines.
- Operate boom trucks, loaders, stump chippers, brush chippers, tractors, power saws, trucks, sprayers, and other equipment and tools.
- Cut away dead and excess branches from trees, or clear branches around power lines, using climbing equipment or buckets of extended truck booms, or chainsaws, hooks, handsaws, shears, and clippers.
- Clean, sharpen, and lubricate tools and equipment.
- Hoist tools and equipment to tree trimmers, and lower branches with ropes or block and tackle.
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?
“Operate shredding and chipping equipment, and feed limbs and brush into the machines.”
Development
What would you need to build over the next 5–10 years?
Operation and Control, Operations Monitoring, Critical Thinking, Complex Problem Solving.
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 $50,960 a year and 7,900 openings nationally each year.
Paths in
Degrees that lead here
- NO MATCHCIP 99.9999
Paths across
Careers that use similar skills
- Fallers$52,100 · -9.9%
- Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers$39,150 · +4.7%
- Pesticide Handlers, Sprayers, and Applicators, Vegetation$46,340 · +3.9%
- Forest and Conservation Workers$43,680 · -1.5%
- Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse$35,660 · -2.4%
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.