Career
Adhesive bonding machine operators and tenders
Run machines that bond materials.
$46,460
Median pay
+1.3%
Job growth, 2025–35
1,300
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
- Align and position materials being joined to ensure accurate application of adhesive or heat sealing.
- Adjust machine components according to specifications such as widths, lengths, and thickness of materials and amounts of glue, cement, or adhesive required.
- Monitor machine operations to detect malfunctions and report or resolve problems.
- Start machines, and turn valves or move controls to feed, admit, apply, or transfer materials and adhesives, and to adjust temperature, pressure, and time settings.
- Fill machines with glue, cement, or adhesives.
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?
“Align and position materials being joined to ensure accurate application of adhesive or heat sealing.”
Development
What would you need to build over the next 5–10 years?
Operation and Control, Operations Monitoring, Active Listening, Quality Control Analysis.
Trade-offs
What does it ask of you in exchange?
No degree beyond high school, though moderate-term on-the-job training is typical, for a median of $46,460 a year and 1,300 openings nationally each year.
Paths in
Degrees that lead here
- NO MATCHCIP 99.9999
Paths across
Careers that use similar skills
- Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders$50,270 · -3.6%
- Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders$46,570 · -0.9%
- Machine Feeders and Offbearers$41,220 · -13.1%
- Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders$45,760 · +1.5%
- Rolling Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic$50,140 · -8.3%
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.