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How to Get Into Welding

Published October 3, 2026 · Built by Jeremy Panasuk

Getting into welding, as a job, is a Bureau of Labor Statistics question. Setting the first practice bead is a calculator question. This page keeps them apart. The pay, education, and outlook figures below are copied from the Occupational Outlook Handbook profile for welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers. They are not estimates from this site. The amp window at the end is what the TIG tab returns for a thin piece of mild steel, which is a shop exercise, not an application.

What BLS says it takes to enter

BLS lists the typical entry-level education as a high school diploma or equivalent, work experience in a related occupation as none, and on-the-job training as moderate-term. The narrative says welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers typically need that diploma combined with technical and on-the-job training. Employers often prefer or require the diploma and technical training, which may come from high school technical classes, vocational–technical institutes, community colleges, or private welding schools. The armed forces also offer welding-related training. Courses in blueprint reading, shop mathematics, and mechanical drawing may be helpful, and an understanding of electricity is useful.

Some people enter through an employer apprenticeship. BLS says some apprenticeships take workers with no prior experience, and others are aimed at people who already finished a vocational welding program. Some employers hire inexperienced people and train them. Many prefer candidates who already completed training or a credentialing program. Even with formal technical training, entry-level workers still receive several months of on-the-job training. This site has no count of schools, no tuition, and no placement rate, so none of those appear here.

Licenses and the word “certification,” in BLS’s wording

BLS says welders must be licensed in some states and localities, and that requirements vary. It says to contact the state or local licensing agency. It says professional organizations offer courses leading to general certification, that some employers require general or specific certification for particular jobs, and that employers may pay for training and testing. It points certification information to CareerOneStop. It also says OSHA requires welders to complete training on electrical safety, and that other OSHA training is available but generally is not required.

That is the whole certification fact pattern this page will state, because it is the pattern BLS publishes. It is not an AWS certification map, a list of test coupons, or a claim that passing a calculator check is a credential. If a job posting names a specific qualification, read that posting and the issuer’s own page. Do not treat this paragraph as the issuer.

Pay, jobs, and outlook, as published

Quick facts on the handbook page: 2024 median pay $51,000 per year, $24.52 per hour. Number of jobs in 2024: 457,300. Job outlook for 2024–34: 2 percent, which BLS labels slower than average. Employment change: 9,900. The same page says the median annual wage was $51,000 in May 2024, the lowest 10 percent earned less than $38,130, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $75,850. Median wages that month in the top industries listed were $57,310 for specialty trade contractors, $53,300 for repair and maintenance, and $49,740 for manufacturing. BLS says wages vary with experience, skill, industry, and company size.

Employment of about 457,300 in 2024 breaks down, in the largest employers BLS lists, as manufacturing 61 percent, specialty trade contractors 8 percent, self-employed workers 6 percent, and repair and maintenance 4 percent. The projection table shows employment of 457,300 in 2024 and 467,200 in 2034. Despite the 2 percent growth, BLS projects about 45,600 openings a year, on average, over the decade, mostly to replace people who move to other occupations or leave the labor force. The comparison lines on the same page put all occupations at 3 percent growth and metal workers and plastic workers at −4 percent. The handbook also says aging infrastructure will need these workers on bridges, highways, and buildings, and that automation in manufacturing may limit overall demand.

The work itself, in BLS’s duty list, includes reading blueprints, calculating and measuring the dimensions of parts, inspecting material, welding to the specification, monitoring the process and adjusting heat, and maintaining equipment. Adjusting heat is the only one of those duties a thickness calculator touches. It does not read a blueprint for you.

Injuries are part of the profile. BLS says these workers risk injury, including from fumes, very hot materials, and intense light from the arc, and that workers avoid injuries by following safety procedures and using personal protective equipment such as welding helmets, hearing protection, and heat-resistant gloves. Most work full time, and some work more than 40 hours a week. Manufacturing plants may run two or three shifts of 8 to 12 hours, so the schedule can include evenings and weekends.

Worked example: a thin practice piece, not a job offer

Once you are on scrap, heat is a number you can check. The calculator’s 1/16 inch marker is 62 mils. On the TIG tab, enter 62 and leave the material on mild steel. The factor is 1.0, so the midpoint is 62 amps. Eighty percent of 62 is 49.6, which rounds to 50. One hundred twenty percent is 74.4, which rounds to 74. The window is 50–74 amps, polarity DCEN. Tungsten and filler both stay at 1/16 inch, because 62 mils is under the 94-mil tungsten step and under the 125-mil filler step.

That window is a place to practice “adjust heat,” which is the BLS duty, on metal thin enough that a wrong amp shows up immediately as a hole or a bead that will not wet. It does not replace the several months of on-the-job training BLS describes, and it does not satisfy a state license or an employer test. Machine size for a home garage, if that is the setting rather than a job, is the garage page. The sequence for one stick bead is how to weld.

A common mistake

The mistake is reading the median wage, or the sentence about certification, as if a settings chart were the entry ticket. BLS’s entry path is a diploma or equivalent plus technical training and time on the job. The $51,000 figure is a May 2024 median for an occupation that also includes cutters, solderers, and brazers. It is not a quote for a hobby welder, and it is not a promise. The 50–74 amp window is not a line on a résumé.

Limits

Every labor figure on this page is from that one handbook profile, accessed October 3, 2026. If BLS revises the profile, these sentences go stale. This site does not track state license boards and does not list AWS test codes. For fume and arc injuries, follow the safety steps BLS names and the agency pages linked from the galvanized safety page, including when the metal is not galvanized. A calculator cannot tell you whether a joint is safe to practice on.

Compiled with AI assistance from the sources below. Spot an error? Email [email protected].

Sources

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers,” Occupational Outlook Handbook. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/production/welders-cutters-solderers-and-brazers.htm. Accessed October 3, 2026.