Welder, cutter, solderer, and brazer

National median pay

$53,750

per year · $25.84 per hour

May 2025

Projected employment change

+2%

2025–35

Slower than average

Jobs in the United States

437,700

Projected openings each year: 40,300

Typical entry-level education

High school diploma or equivalent

On-the-job training

Moderate-term on-the-job training

What the occupation does

A welder permanently joins metal, and does it well enough that the joint holds under load, pressure, or vibration. That may be a structural beam, a pressure pipe in a refinery, a ship hull, or a thin sheet of stainless steel. The work is far more precise than the image suggests: much of the skill is in setting the machine correctly, controlling heat, and reading the puddle. Some welders work to a written procedure that specifies every variable, and their work may be inspected by radiography or ultrasound.

Common daily responsibilities

• Read and interpret blueprints, sketches, and welding procedure specifications.
• Measure and lay out the parts to be joined.
• Set up the welding machine: current, polarity, gas flow, and wire or rod selection.
• Weld, cut, or braze according to the specification, adjusting heat as you go.
• Inspect your own work, and prepare joints for inspection by others.
• Maintain equipment and keep the work area safe from sparks, fumes, and fire.
• Wear the right protective equipment: helmet, gloves, respirator, and hearing protection.

Typical work environments

• Manufacturing plants and fabrication shops, working at a bench or a fixture.
• Construction sites, often outdoors in all weather and sometimes at height.
• Industrial plants, refineries, and power stations, on pipe and pressure systems during maintenance shutdowns.
• Shipyards, rail yards, and heavy equipment repair.

Skills and abilities needed

• Good hand-eye coordination and steady hands, because the arc is unforgiving.
• Visual judgement: being able to read the puddle, the arc, and the finished bead.
• Comfort with basic measurement and layout maths.
• Physical stamina for standing, crouching, and working in awkward positions, sometimes in heat.
• Discipline about procedure, since a shortcut on a pressure joint can be dangerous.
• Patience to practise one joint until it is right rather than nearly right.

Ways to enter the occupation

• Certificate or associate degree in welding

  Community colleges and technical schools offer six-month certificates through to two-year degrees. Look for programmes with substantial arc time on real metal, not just demonstration. This is the most direct route for someone starting from scratch.

  Typical duration: 6 months to 2 years

• Registered apprenticeship

  Available through some union locals and larger industrial employers, particularly in pipe and structural welding. Paid, and it leads to recognised journeyman status.

  Typical duration: Usually 3 to 4 years

• Helper or shop entry with on-the-job training

  Some fabrication shops hire with no formal training and teach you on the job. Expect to start on cutting, fitting, and grinding before you are trusted with critical welds.

  Typical duration: Varies; often 1 to 3 years to be fully capable

• Military training

  Hull technician and machinery repair specialties include substantial welding and can translate directly into civilian shop work.

  Typical duration: Varies

How long training takes

A certificate usually takes six months to two years, and a registered apprenticeship about three to four years. Time to competence depends heavily on the process and position you need: flat-position structural welding is learnable in months, while certified pipe welding to code in all positions commonly takes a year or more of focused practice on top of the basic training.

Licensing and certification

Welding is generally not licensed by the state as an occupation. What matters instead is certification: for code work, a welder is usually certified to a specific welding procedure by an employer, a testing laboratory, or an inspection body, and that certification is specific to the process, the position, and the thickness of metal. Because the certification belongs to the procedure and often to the employer, it may need to be requalified when you change jobs or processes. Some welding work in structural or pressure applications is also tied to the building or pressure-vessel code that governs the project.

This describes the general pattern. It is not a statement about the rules in your state, and nothing here means a trade is licensed nationwide.

Do requirements differ by state?

Partly. State occupational licensing is uncommon for welding itself, so the state-by-state difference is smaller than in the licensed trades. What does vary is which codes and certifications employers require, and those are driven by the project and the customer rather than by a state board. Some states do license or register welding contractors for certain public work, so check if you intend to contract directly.

How to find a legitimate program

Ask a welding programme two questions above all: how many hours of actual arc time each student gets, and what certification the programme prepares you to test for. A programme that teaches theory without enough time under the helmet will not get you hired. Community college programmes are usually the most transparent about this. Ask to see the shop.

Career advancement

• Certification in more demanding processes and positions, particularly pipe welding and TIG on stainless or aluminium, which typically pay above the median.
• Welding inspector, which moves you from doing the work to verifying it, and usually requires separate certification.
• Welding supervisor, shop foreman, or fabrication lead.
• Welding engineer or engineering technician, usually with further formal education.
• Running a small fabrication or mobile welding business.

Self-employment

About 4 percent of welders are self-employed according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Mobile welding and small fabrication shops are a realistic path, particularly in rural areas where customers cannot easily bring work to a shop. Expect to need your own equipment, a vehicle, insurance, and a business registration, and to spend real time finding customers.

Self-employment usually brings its own requirements on top of the trade itself, such as a business registration, a contractor licence, insurance, or a bond. Those are separate from the occupational licence and are set by your state.

Related occupations

• Industrial machinery mechanic, maintenance worker, and millwright
• Automotive service technician and mechanic
• Diesel service technician and mechanic
• Plumber, pipefitter, and steamfitter

Official resources and next steps

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Outlook Handbook

  The federal source for the pay, education, and employment projections shown on this page.

• Apprenticeship.gov — U.S. Department of Labor

  The official register of registered apprenticeship programmes. Search by trade and by state, and confirm that a programme is registered before you trust it.

• CareerOneStop — U.S. Department of Labor

  Official wage data for your own area, local training listings, and the American Job Center nearest you.

• O*NET OnLine — U.S. Department of Labor

  A detailed breakdown of the tasks, tools, and knowledge each occupation actually involves, maintained by the Department of Labor.

• U.S. Department of Labor

  Federal rules on wages, safety, and training, and the starting point for finding the state agency that governs a trade.