Millwrights
Install, dismantle, or move machinery and heavy equipment according to layout plans, blueprints, or other drawings.
- Median pay
- $65,700
- Doing it now
- 40,700
- By 2035
- Up 0.9%
- Usually needs
- High school diploma or equivalent
a year
across the country
3,200 openings a year
to get in
What the work involves
- Replace defective parts of machine, or adjust clearances and alignment of moving parts.
- Connect power unit to machines or steam piping to equipment, and test unit to evaluate its mechanical operation.
- Assemble and install equipment, using hand tools and power tools.
- Position steel beams to support bedplates of machines and equipment, using blueprints and schematic drawings to determine work procedures.
- Signal crane operator to lower basic assembly units to bedplate, and align unit to centerline.
- Insert shims, adjust tension on nuts and bolts, or position parts, using hand tools and measuring instruments, to set specified clearances between moving and stationary parts.
- Move machinery and equipment, using hoists, dollies, rollers, and trucks.
What to study
The fields of study the Department of Education links to this occupation, most widely taught first.
- Heavy/Industrial Equipment Maintenance Technologies/TechniciansSee 2 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
Analytical and curious
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 $65,700 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.