Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers
Use hand-welding, flame-cutting, hand-soldering, or brazing equipment to weld or join metal components or to fill holes, indentations, or seams of fabricated metal products.
- Median pay
- $53,750
- Doing it now
- 437,700
- By 2035
- Up 2.4%
- Usually needs
- High school diploma or equivalent
a year
across the country
40,300 openings a year
to get in
What the work involves
- Weld components in flat, vertical, or overhead positions.
- Operate safety equipment and use safe work habits.
- Examine workpieces for defects and measure workpieces with straightedges or templates to ensure conformance with specifications.
- Recognize, set up, and operate hand and power tools common to the welding trade, such as shielded metal arc and gas metal arc welding equipment.
- Weld separately or in combination, using aluminum, stainless steel, cast iron, and other alloys.
- Select and install torches, torch tips, filler rods, and flux, according to welding chart specifications or types and thicknesses of metals.
- Connect and turn regulator valves to activate and adjust gas flow and pressure so that desired flames are obtained.
What to study
The fields of study the Department of Education links to this occupation, most widely taught first.
- Industrial Production Technologies/TechniciansSee 126 colleges that teach it
- Precision Metal WorkingSee 4 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
- Sheet Metal Workers$61,800
- Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic$46,550
- Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic$46,330
- Welding, Soldering, and Brazing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders$47,920
- Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters$51,330
- Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic$47,180
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 $53,750 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.