Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers
Design, fabricate, adjust, repair, or appraise jewelry, gold, silver, other precious metals, or gems.
- Median pay
- $52,540
- Doing it now
- 32,800
- By 2035
- Down 3.2%
- Usually needs
- High school diploma or equivalent
a year
across the country
3,700 openings a year
to get in
What the work involves
- Position stones and metal pieces, and set, mount, and secure items in place, using setting and hand tools.
- Smooth soldered joints and rough spots, using hand files and emery paper, and polish smoothed areas with polishing wheels or buffing wire.
- Create jewelry from materials such as gold, silver, platinum, and precious or semiprecious stones.
- Make repairs, such as enlarging or reducing ring sizes, soldering pieces of jewelry together, and replacing broken clasps and mountings.
- Clean and polish metal items and jewelry pieces, using jewelers' tools, polishing wheels, and chemical baths.
- Cut and file pieces of jewelry such as rings, brooches, bracelets, and lockets.
- Select and acquire metals and gems for designs.
What to study
The fields of study the Department of Education links to this occupation, most widely taught first.
- Fine and Studio ArtsSee 1,083 colleges that teach it
Who it suits
O*NET scores every occupation on six interest dimensions. This one leans hardest on these three.
Hands-on and practical
Organised and precise
Creative and expressive
Careers like this one
Where this comes from: the description and the task list are O*NET, which the Department of Labor maintains. Pay, workforce size, outlook and the education normally needed are the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections programme, 2025 wages and 2025 to 2035 projections. Half of them earn more than $52,540 a year, which means half earn less, and what you would earn depends on where you work and how long you have been doing it. The fields of study come from the National Center for Education Statistics crosswalk.