Agricultural Equipment Operators
SOC 45-2091 · 2024-2034
Drive and control equipment to support agricultural activities such as tilling soil; planting, cultivating, and harvesting crops; feeding and herding livestock; or removing animal waste. May perform tasks such as crop baling or hay bucking. May operate stationary equipment to perform post-harvest tasks such as husking, shelling, threshing, and ginning.
How the U.S. Department of Labor describes this work. Published in English only.
The job this trains for
- Typical pay in California
- $39,872per year
- Projected openings
- 26,200
- Projected change
- +7.4%
- Usually needs
- No formal educational credential
Bright Outlook — a U.S. Department of Labor designation
Rapid Growth
The Department's own designation, made from its national projections. It is not this project's assessment and it is not California's: every other figure on this page comes from California's projection, which can point the other way and for some occupations does.
Skills this work uses most
O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, rates how important each of these is to this work, and they are listed in that order, most important first. The ratings themselves are not shown, because the data carries the number without the scale it was measured on. The names are as published, in English.
- Operation and Control
- Operations Monitoring
- Troubleshooting
- Repairing
- Quality Control Analysis
- Active Listening
Pay by region
| Region | Typical pay in California | Projected openings |
|---|---|---|
| Napa MSA (Napa County) | $50,142 | 870 |
| Santa Rosa-Petaluma MSA (Sonoma County) | $49,864 | 720 |
| San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles MSA (San Luis Obispo County) | $46,354 | 550 |
| North Coast Region (Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, and Mendocino Counties) | $45,582 | 420 |
| North Valley-Northern Mountains Region (Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Trinity Counties) | $43,410 | 640 |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom MSA (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo Counties) | $43,049 | 860 |
| Santa Maria-Santa Barbara MSA (Santa Barbara County) | $42,730 | 2,480 |
| Vallejo MSA (Solano County) | $42,349 | 130 |
| Salinas MSA (Monterey County) | $41,793 | 3,120 |
| Yuba City MSA (Sutter and Yuba Counties) | $40,795 | 350 |
| Stockton-Lodi MSA (San Joaquin County) | $40,785 | 890 |
| Merced MSA (Merced County) | $40,342 | 980 |
| Modesto MSA (Stanislaus County) | $40,342 | 840 |
| Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura MSA (Ventura County) | $40,115 | 1,970 |
| El Centro MSA (Imperial County) | $39,302 | 610 |
| Fresno MSA (Fresno and Madera Counties) | $38,870 | 2,420 |
| Visalia MSA (Tulare County) | $38,808 | 1,570 |
| Bakersfield-Delano MSA (Kern County) | $38,705 | 2,390 |
| Hanford-Corcoran MSA (Kings County) | $38,057 | 520 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties) | $35,226 | 1,820 |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad MSA (San Diego County) | Not reported | 830 |
Similar work
O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, names these as occupations involving work similar to this one — its own reading of the job, not a grouping by code. They keep O*NET's order, and only those California publishes a projection for are shown.
| The job this trains for | Typical pay in California | Projected openings | Projected change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse | $36,544 | 373,450 | -2.1% |
| Machine Feeders and Offbearers | $41,264 | 5,140 | -10.2% |
| Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders | $46,917 | 2,180 | -4.2% |
| Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders | $54,117 | 14,400 | -4.8% |
| Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders | $48,379 | 3,540 | -2.4% |
| Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand | $45,689 | 502,850 | +8.6% |
Leads to — 3
Heavy Equipment Technician Training
Reedley Community College · Reedley · $4,510
Medium/Heavy Truck Service and Repair
Reedley Community College · Reedley · $4,510
Heavy Equipment Operator Technician (Certificate)
Butte College · Oroville · $2,045