Certified Industrial Refrigeration Operator

Median Annual Income

$39,850

Projected Job Growth

+2 %

Career Cluster(s)

Advanced Manufacturing

Most Common Education Level

No formal educational credential

Operate or tend food or tobacco roasting, baking, or drying equipment, including hearth ovens, kiln driers, roasters, char kilns, and vacuum drying equipment.

Median Annual Income

$38,460

Projected Job Growth

+9 %

Career Cluster(s)

Advanced Manufacturing

Most Common Education Level

High school diploma or equivalent

Set up and operate equipment that mixes or blends ingredients used in the manufacturing of food products. Includes candy makers and cheese makers.

Median Annual Income

$38,550

Projected Job Growth

+1 %

Career Cluster(s)

Advanced Manufacturing

Most Common Education Level

High school diploma or equivalent

Operate or tend cooking equipment, such as steam cooking vats, deep fry cookers, pressure cookers, kettles, and boilers, to prepare food products.

Median Annual Income

$50,250

Projected Job Growth

-5 %

Career Cluster(s)

Advanced Manufacturing

Most Common Education Level

High school diploma or equivalent

Operate or tend furnaces, such as gas, oil, coal, electric-arc or electric induction, open-hearth, or oxygen furnaces, to melt and refine metal before casting or to produce specified types of steel.

Median Annual Income

$44,240

Projected Job Growth

-10 %

Career Cluster(s)

Advanced Manufacturing

Most Common Education Level

High school diploma or equivalent

Set up, operate, or tend heating equipment, such as heat-treating furnaces, flame-hardening machines, induction machines, soaking pits, or vacuum equipment to temper, harden, anneal, or heat treat metal or plastic objects.

Median Annual Income

$67,640

Projected Job Growth

+4 %

Career Cluster(s)

Advanced Manufacturing

Most Common Education Level

High school diploma or equivalent

Operate or maintain stationary engines, boilers, or other mechanical equipment to provide utilities for buildings or industrial processes. Operate equipment such as steam engines, generators, motors, turbines, and steam boilers.

Median Annual Income

$48,120

Projected Job Growth

+2 %

Career Cluster(s)

Advanced Manufacturing

Most Common Education Level

High school diploma or equivalent

Set up, operate, or tend continuous flow or vat-type equipment; filter presses; shaker screens; centrifuges; condenser tubes; precipitating, fermenting, or evaporating tanks; scrubbing towers; or batch stills. These machines extract, sort, or separate liquids, gases, or solids from other materials to recover a refined product. Includes dairy processing equipment operators.

Median Annual Income

$42,670

Projected Job Growth

+3 %

Career Cluster(s)

Advanced Manufacturing

Most Common Education Level

High school diploma or equivalent

Set up, operate, or tend machines, such as glass-forming machines, plodder machines, and tuber machines, to shape and form products such as glassware, food, rubber, soap, brick, tile, clay, wax, tobacco, or cosmetics.

Median Annual Income

$45,640

Projected Job Growth

+2 %

Career Cluster(s)

Advanced Manufacturing

Most Common Education Level

High school diploma or equivalent

Operate or tend heating equipment other than basic metal, plastic, or food processing equipment. Includes activities such as annealing glass, drying lumber, curing rubber, removing moisture from materials, or boiling soap.

Median Annual Income

$39,340

Projected Job Growth

+5 %

Career Cluster(s)

Advanced Manufacturing

Most Common Education Level

High school diploma or equivalent

Operate or tend machines to wash or clean products, such as barrels or kegs, glass items, tin plate, food, pulp, coal, plastic, or rubber, to remove impurities.