Career
Boilermakers
Build and repair boilers and large tanks.
$76,410
Median pay
-1.8%
Job growth, 2025–35
700
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
- Conduct pressure tests on vessels, such as boilers.
- Study blueprints to determine locations, relationships, or dimensions of parts.
- Examine boilers, pressure vessels, tanks, or vats to locate defects, such as leaks, weak spots, or defective sections, so that they can be repaired.
- Inspect assembled vessels or individual components, such as tubes, fittings, valves, controls, or auxiliary mechanisms, to locate any defects.
- Lay out plate, sheet steel, or other heavy metal and locate and mark bending and cutting lines, using protractors, compasses, and drawing instruments or templates.
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?
“Conduct pressure tests on vessels, such as boilers.”
Development
What would you need to build over the next 5–10 years?
Operations Monitoring, Operation and Control, Critical Thinking, Troubleshooting.
Trade-offs
What does it ask of you in exchange?
No degree beyond high school, though apprenticeship is typical, for a median of $76,410 a year and 700 openings nationally each year.
Paths in
Degrees that lead here
- Boilermaking/BoilermakerCIP 48.0801
Paths across
Careers that use similar skills
- Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters$63,800 · +6.8%
- Millwrights$65,700 · +0.9%
- Helpers--Pipelayers, Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters$42,360 · +2.4%
- Engine and Other Machine Assemblers$53,710 · -17.0%
- Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators$78,620 · +3.1%
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.