Hand Laborers and Material Movers: Salary, career path, job outlook, education and more
- Education Required
- There are no formal educational requirements for anyone to become a hand laborer or material mover.
- Training Required
- Most positions for hand laborers and material movers require less than 1 month of on-the-job training. Some workers need only a few days of training, and most training is done by a supervisor or a more experienced worker who decides when trainees are ready to work on their own.
- Job Outlook
-
The projected percent change in employment from 2016 to 2026: 7% (As fast as average)
(The average growth rate for all occupations is 7 percent.) - Licenses/Certifications
- Refuse and recyclable material collectors who drive trucks that exceed a certain capacitysuch as vehicles with the combined weight of the vehicle, passengers, and cargo exceeding 26,000 poundsmust have a commercial drivers license (CDL). Obtaining a CDL requires passing written, skill, and vision tests.
- Median pay: How much do Hand Laborers and Material Movers make?
- $24,880 Annual Salary
- $11.96 per hour
Hand laborers and material movers manually move freight, stock, or other materials. Some of these workers feed or remove material to or from machines, clean vehicles, pick up unwanted household goods, and pack materials for moving.
What do Hand Laborers and Material Movers do?
Hand laborers and material movers typically do the following:
- Manually move material from one place to another
- Pack or wrap products by hand
- Keep a record of the material they move
- Signal machine operators to help move material
- Clean cars, equipment, and workplaces
In warehouses and in wholesale and retail operations, hand laborers and material movers work closely with material moving machine operators and material recording clerks. Some workers are employed in manufacturing industries, loading material onto conveyor belts or other machines.
The following are examples of types of hand laborers and material movers:
Careers for Hand Laborers and Material Movers
- Aircraft cleaners
- Auto cleaners
- Auto detailers
- Automobile cleaners
- Automobile detailers
- Baggers
- Beer coil cleaners
- Boat detailers
- Brick offbearers
- Bus cleaners
- Bus washers
- Car wash attendants
- Car washers
- Cargo handlers
- Cart pushers
- Carton wrappers
- Chain offbearers
- Chopper feeders
- Cleaners of vehicles and equipment
- Doffers
- Dryer feeders
- Egg packers
- Equipment cleaners
- Freight handlers
- Garbage collectors
- Gift wrappers
- Grave diggers
- Grocery store baggers
- Hand laborers and freight, stock, and material movers
- Hand packers and packagers
- Hopper feeders
- Hopper fillers
- Line feeders
- Machine cleaners
- Machine feeders and offbearers
- Manufacturing laborers
- Material handlers
- Meat packagers
- Meat wrappers
- Offbearers
- Package handlers
- Package machine can feeders
- Railroad car cleaners
- Recyclable materials collectors
- Refuse and recyclable material collectors
- Refuse collectors
- Sanitation workers
- Scrap metal collectors
- Shipping and receiving material handlers
- Solid waste collectors
- Spike machine feeders
- Spinning doffers
- Spooler operators
- Stock movers
- Trash collectors
- Truck washers
- Utility baggers
- Van loaders
- Wharf laborers