Hand laborers and freight, stock, and material movers: Salary, career path, job outlook, education and more
Hand laborers and freight, stock, and material movers move materials to and from storage and production areas, loading docks, delivery trucks, ships, and containers. Although their specific duties may vary, most of these movers, often called pickers, work in warehouses. Some workers retrieve products from storage and move them to loading areas. Other workers load and unload cargo from a truck. When moving a package, pickers keep track of the package number, sometimes with a hand-held scanner, to ensure proper delivery. Sometimes they open containers and sort the material.
- 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
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 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