OverviewSalaryAboutEducationWhere are the jobsEmploymentGenderRace/Origin
Overview
Perform work involving the skills of two or more maintenance or craft occupations to keep machines, mechanical equipment, or the structure of a building in repair. Duties may involve pipe fitting; HVAC maintenance; insulating; welding; machining; carpentry; repairing electrical or mechanical equipment; installing, aligning, and balancing new equipment; and repairing buildings, floors, or stairs.
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Titles for this career often contain these words
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Responsibilities and activities
General maintenance and repair workers typically do the following:
- Maintain and repair machines, mechanical equipment, and buildings
- Fix or replace faulty electrical switches, outlets, and circuit breakers
- Inspect and diagnose problems and figure out the best way to correct them
- Perform routine preventive maintenance to ensure that machines continue to run smoothly
- Assemble and set up machinery or equipment
- Plan repair work using blueprints or diagrams
- Do general cleaning and upkeep of buildings and properties
- Order supplies from catalogs and storerooms
- Meet with clients to estimate repairs and costs
- Keep detailed records of their work
General maintenance and repair workers are hired for maintenance and repair tasks that are not complex enough to need the specialized training of a licensed tradesperson, such as a plumber or electrician.
These workers are also responsible for recognizing when a job is above their skill level and requires the expertise of an electrician; a carpenter; a heating, air-conditioning, and refrigeration mechanic or installer; or a plumber, pipefitter, or steamfitter.
General maintenance and repair workers may fix or paint roofs, windows, doors, floors, woodwork, walls, and other parts of buildings.
They also maintain and repair specialized equipment and machinery in cafeterias, laundries, hospitals, stores, offices, and factories.
General maintenance and repair workers get supplies and parts from distributors or storerooms to fix problems. They use common hand and power tools, such as screwdrivers, saws, drills, wrenches, and hammers to fix, replace, or repair equipment and parts of buildings.
Salary
Median salary: $40,850 annually
Half of those employed in this career earn between $32,020 and $53,150.
Context: Median Salary
How do salaries for this career compare to other jobs' salaries?
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Salary growth for general maintenance and repair workers
Is this job likely to reward you for sticking with it through pay raises and promotions? The higher a job’s “experience quotient,” the more you are likely to get as you stay there.
Experience quotient percentile
Take a minute to look at how much you might expect your salary to increase with each five years' experience, as well as how the numbers working at each age change. Does this seem to be a job for the young or the old, or could it be a career offering steady salary growth for many years?
Salary distribution
Number employed
About General Maintenance and Repair Workers
How do benefits for this career compare to other jobs? The availability of health care, especially employer provided health care, and pension plans can add significantly to the value of compensation you receive in a career. These charts compare how this career compares to other careers with regard to health care and pension plans.
Employee has health insurance
Employer is providing health insurance
Employer-provided pension plan is available
Worker concerns
Some jobs are more stressful than others, and some are just plain dangerous. The following list gives the percentages of general maintenance and repair workers who report hazardous or difficult situations typically occurring at least once a week.
- Exposed to Contaminants (90%)
- Hazardous Equipment (86%)
- Hazardous Conditions (60%)
- Minor Burns, Cuts, Bites (60%)
- Responsible for Others' Health (57%)
- High Places (52%)
- Time Pressure (52%)
- High Conflict Frequency (49%)
- Unpleasant or Angry People (49%)
- Exposed to Disease or Infections (44%)
- Consequence of Error (32%)
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Personality and skills
Can you see yourself in the ranks of General Maintenance and Repair Workers? Here are the skills and traits that could lead to success.
Customer-service skills
These workers interact with customers on a regular basis. They need to be friendly and able to address customers’ questions.
Dexterity
Many repair and maintenance tasks, such as repairing small devices, connecting or attaching components, and using hand tools, require a steady hand and good hand–eye coordination.
Troubleshooting skills
Workers find, diagnose, and repair problems. They perform tests to figure out the cause of problems before fixing equipment.
Injury and Illness
About 205 general maintenance and repair workers become injured or ill for every 10,000 workers, making this job more dangerous than 93% of other careers. The most common specific illnesses or injuries are detailed following.
Chemical burns and corrosions
Amputations
Carpal tunnel syndrome
Education pathways to this career
Education attained by general maintenance and repair workers
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), general maintenance and repair workers typically hold a high school diploma or equivalent.
Sometimes the typical education identified by the BLS differs a bit from the reality of the how much education current workers actually have. The donut shows the education level held by people currently working as general maintenance and repair workers as reported in responses to the American Community Survey.
Details: Education and training recommended for general maintenance and repair workers
Many maintenance and repair workers learn some basic skills in high school shop or technical education classes, postsecondary trade or vocational schools, or community colleges.
Courses in mechanical drawing, electricity, woodworking, blueprint reading, mathematics, and computers are useful. Maintenance and repair workers often do work that involves electrical, plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning systems or painting and roofing tasks. Workers need a good working knowledge of many repair and maintenance tasks.
Practical training, available at many adult education centers and community colleges, is another option for workers to learn tasks such as drywall repair and basic plumbing.
Details: Licensing and certification recommended for general maintenance and repair workers
Licensing requirements vary by state and locality. For more complex tasks, workers may need to be licensed in a particular specialty, such as electrical or plumbing work.
Education level of General Maintenance and Repair Workers
Only 7% of general maintenance and repair workers have a bachelor's degree or higher.
Education attained by general maintenance and repair workers
None
High School
Some College
Associate's Degree
Bachelor's Degree
Master's Degree
Professional Degree
Doctorate
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Programs recommended by the Department of Education
The Department of Education recommends the following college degree programs as preparation for this career. You can click the program row to learn more about the program and explore a list of schools that offer the program.
Number of degrees awarded in 2018
Education
Education level of awarded degrees
Assoc./Cert.
Bachelor's
Graduate
Gender
Gender of graduates
Men
Women
Race/Origin
Race/origin of graduates
White
Minority
International
Where are the jobs
State-by-state employment numbers
Some careers tend to be centered in specific parts of the country. For example, most jobs in fashion are in New York or California. Let's see if your dream job is easy to find in your dream location! We have a few choices for viewing the data that can help you get a full employment picture.
Select a state to see local area details
Number of General Maintenance and Repair Workers per 1,000 workers (ACS)
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Job density versus job count
Which states hire the most general maintenance and repair workers? We wonder if that's a fair question since states come in all sizes, so instead let's start with the question of which states have the highest density of people working as general maintenance and repair workers. You can choose to view the number of jobs per state if you prefer.
Salaries by state
Let's get a feel for where general maintenance and repair workers earn the highest salaries. There are several choices for which data we consider and how we view that data, and each can lead to different conclusions, so please read on...
Median salary versus state ratio
We use two methods to compare salaries across states:
- In-state comparisons: the ratio of median (middle) salaries for general maintenance and repair workers compared to the median salary for all people working in each state, or
- Median salary: the unaltered median salaries for general maintenance and repair workers.
The darkest shading corresponds to states in which general maintenance and repair workers earn the highest salary when compared to other jobs in the state. We think this figure might be a better indicator than the actual salary for your buying power as a state resident.
Select a state to see local area details
Location-adjusted median salary for General Maintenance and Repair Workers (ACS)
Employment
7% of General maintenance and repair workers are working part time.
We’ve found that some jobs have a huge number of part-time workers, and typically that is because they are unable to find full-time work or the job itself can’t provide full-time hours. With 7% part-time workers, this occupation has a lower percentage of part-time workers than 67% of careers.
Employer types
This donut shares the break-down of workers by employer type, giving us a picture of what employers most typically hire for this career.
Employers of undefined (ACS)
Private for-profit
Private not-for-profit
Local government
State government
Federal government
Self-employed incorporated
Self-employed not incorporated
Working without pay
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Distribution: Salaries of general maintenance and repair workers by type of employer
Here are the salary distributions based on employer type.
Gender
General maintenance and repair workers and gender
With 3% women, this occupation has a lower percentage of women than 91% of careers.
Gender of General maintenance and repair workers
Men (97%)
Women (3%)
Distribution: salaries by gender
Does gender greatly influence your salary in this career? The closer the bars are, the less discrepancy there is.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
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Context: Women in the workforce
How does this career compare to other careers with regard to the percentage of women in the career.
Context: Salary inequity
The median salary for all full-time male workers in the
US exceeds the full-time median salary for women
by 19%.
The situation is a little better for general maintenance and repair workers, with the
median salary for men 14%
higher than the median salary for women.
Race/Origin
Race and origin of General maintenance and repair workers
This donut shows the distribution of race and origin among those employed as General maintenance and repair workers.
Race/origin of general maintenance and repair workers
White (78% )
Black (9% )
Other (6% )
Asian (3% )
Multiracial (2% )
Hispanic (1% )
American Indian (1% )
Pacific Islander (0% )
Distribution: salaries by race/origin
Some careers might have a pay disparity based on race or origin, the closer the below bars are the less of a discrepancy is present.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
