Careers / Sewing Machine Operators
Sewing Machine Operators — Career Decision Dashboard
United States
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Report generated from official BLS OEWS and O*NET data — United States.
Median annual wage
$36,670
United States, 2025
Employment
104,880
United States, 2025
Typical education
Less than a High School Diploma
Job Zone 2
Skills identified
35
10 related careers
Career overview
Operate or tend sewing machines to join, reinforce, decorate, or perform related sewing operations in the manufacture of garment or nongarment products.
- O*NET code
- 51-6031.00
- Job zone
- 2
- Experience required
- Over 3 months, up to and including 6 months
Typical tasks
- Guide garments or garment parts under machine needles and presser feet to sew parts together.
- Remove holding devices and finished items from machines.
- Monitor machine operation to detect problems such as defective stitching, breaks in thread, or machine malfunctions.
- Place spools of thread, cord, or other materials on spindles, insert bobbins, and thread ends through machine guides and components.
- Position items under needles, using marks on machines, clamps, templates, or cloth as guides.
- Match cloth pieces in correct sequences prior to sewing them, and verify that dye lots and patterns match.
- Fold or stretch edges or lengths of items while sewing to facilitate forming specified sections.
- Cut excess material or thread from finished products.
Choose a location
Salary analysis — United States
10th percentile
$27,860
25th percentile
$31,960
75th percentile
$42,830
90th percentile
$47,840
Most important skills
- Monitoring3.1
- Quality Control Analysis2.8
- Judgment and Decision Making2.8
- Time Management2.8
- Operations Monitoring2.8
- Critical Thinking2.8
- Active Listening2.8
- Complex Problem Solving2.8
- Operation and Control2.6
- Reading Comprehension2.6
- Coordination2.5
- Social Perceptiveness2.4
What skills do you need?
Select the skills you already have
Skills listed are those O*NET rates at importance 3.0 or above for this occupation. Set your own level on the same 0–7 O*NET scale.
Skill coverage
0%
0 of 1 identified skills
Matched
0
Missing
1
Your selected skills cover approximately 0% of the skills identified for this occupation in O*NET. This is a coverage measure of listed skills only — it is not a qualification, hiring or interview outcome.
Skills to develop
| Skill | Importance | Required level | Your level | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monitoring | 3.1 | 2.5 | Not selected | 2.5 |
Ordered by required level gap multiplied by O*NET importance. No prediction or recommendation is implied.
Related careers
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Compare with Sewing Machine OperatorsHow salary varies by location
| Location | Median | Employment | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bend, OR | $50,830 | 50 | 2025 |
| Glens Falls, NY | $50,000 | 40 | 2025 |
| Appleton, WI | $48,460 | 110 | 2025 |
| Las Vegas, NV | $48,190 | 460 | 2025 |
| Bremerton, WA | $47,220 | 50 | 2025 |
| San Jose, CA | $47,220 | 220 | 2025 |
| Hickory, NC | $46,540 | 1,860 | 2025 |
| Bangor, ME | $46,060 | 70 | 2025 |
| NV | $45,750 | 910 | 2025 |
| Denver, CO | $45,210 | 530 | 2025 |
| Portland, ME | $45,160 | 240 | 2025 |
| San Francisco, CA | $44,880 | 740 | 2025 |
| Columbia, SC | $44,810 | 390 | 2025 |
| Lewiston, ME | $44,670 | 160 | 2025 |
| Seattle, WA | $44,350 | 1,060 | 2025 |
| Santa Cruz, CA | $44,350 | 40 | 2025 |
| AK | $43,850 | 40 | 2025 |
| CO | $43,840 | 970 | 2025 |
| Evansville, IN | $43,800 | 180 | 2025 |
| Boulder, CO | $43,740 | 70 | 2025 |
Career transition paths
Compare the skills of a career you hold today with Sewing Machine Operators to see shared skills, target-only skills and skill overlap.
Build a transition comparisonCareer and skills data: O*NET 31.0.
Salary and employment data: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS, 2025 (May 2025 release).
Figures are periodic published survey snapshots, not real-time market rates.