Jeweler: what the job is, what it pays, and how to get hired.
The work, the skills that matter, the tools in demand and the pay range, from U.S. government data, plus every TryHired page for the role.
10% of jewelers earn less than this amount.
- Annual
- $35,580
- Hourly
- $17.11
- Source
- BLS May 2025
25% of jewelers earn less than this amount.
- Annual
- $39,520
- Hourly
- $19.00
- Source
- BLS May 2025
Half of jewelers earn more than this and half earn less.
- Annual
- $52,540
- Hourly
- $25.26
- Source
- BLS May 2025
75% of jewelers earn less than this amount.
- Annual
- $69,810
- Hourly
- $33.56
- Source
- BLS May 2025
90% of jewelers earn less than this amount.
- Annual
- $87,540
- Hourly
- $42.09
- Source
- BLS May 2025
Jewelers design, fabricate, adjust, repair, or appraise jewelry, gold, silver, other precious metals, or gems. The median pay is $52,540 a year ($25.26 an hour) (BLS, May 2025). The most commonly reported education requirement is a high school diploma or equivalent (25% of workers surveyed by O*NET).
- Median pay
- $52,540
- BLS May 2025
- Employed in the U.S.
- 22,440
- BLS May 2025
- Preparation
- Job Zone 3 of 5
- medium preparation
- Most common education
- High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED)
- 25% of workers
Data Government data groups this job as Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers (O*NET-SOC 51-9071.00). Figures on this page are for that occupation.
Jewelers at a glance
Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers in the United States earned a median annual wage of $52,540 in May 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025
In its 2025–35 employment projections, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical entry-level education for jewelers and precious stone and metal workers in the United States.
Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35
BLS projects employment of jewelers and precious stone and metal workers in the United States to decline 3.2% from 2025 to 2035, with about 3,700 openings a year on average, including replacement openings.
Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35
BLS estimated that 22,440 people were employed as jewelers and precious stone and metal workers in the United States in May 2025, not counting the self-employed.
Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025
Every page for Jewelers
What jewelers do day to day
Data Core tasks rated most important by workers in the role (O*NET).
- Clean and polish metal items and jewelry pieces, using jewelers' tools, polishing wheels, and chemical baths.
- Smooth soldered joints and rough spots, using hand files and emery paper, and polish smoothed areas with polishing wheels or buffing wire.
- Create jewelry from materials such as gold, silver, platinum, and precious or semiprecious stones.
- Cut and file pieces of jewelry such as rings, brooches, bracelets, and lockets.
- Examine assembled or finished products to ensure conformance to specifications, using magnifying glasses or precision measuring instruments.
- Make repairs, such as enlarging or reducing ring sizes, soldering pieces of jewelry together, and replacing broken clasps and mountings.
- Compute costs of labor and materials to determine production costs of products and articles.
- Position stones and metal pieces, and set, mount, and secure items in place, using setting and hand tools.
Ranked by importance to the job
Data O*NET importance ratings. The first three are core.
Knowledge areas: Customer and Personal Service, Design, Production and Processing, Sales and Marketing, Administration and Management, Mechanical.
Software jewelers use
Data Examples reported for the role; employer demand flags from O*NET.
- Adobe IllustratorGraphics or photo imaging softwareHot technology
- Adobe PhotoshopGraphics or photo imaging softwareHot technology
- Computer assisted jewelry design CAD softwareComputer aided design CAD software
- Inventory tracking softwareInventory management software
- Jewelry store point of sale POS softwarePoint of sale POS software
- Metal designing softwareComputer aided design CAD software
- Intuit QuickBooksAccounting softwareHot technology
- Microsoft ExcelSpreadsheet softwareHot technology
- Microsoft OutlookElectronic mail softwareHot technology
- Microsoft WordWord processing softwareHot technology
- Customer information databasesCustomer relationship management CRM software
- Retail management softwareData base user interface and query software
Also called: Appraiser, Artisan Jeweler, Bench Jeweler, Caster, Gemologist, Goldsmith.
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How this page is built
Tasks, skills, tools, education and related roles come from O*NET 31.0. Pay and employment come from the BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates. The skill-match score is our calculation: Skill match is the cosine similarity of the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level and subtract the average across all occupations, then compare the direction of the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 means unrelated or opposite (negative values are shown as 0). Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared.
- How a specific employer defines the job.
- Pay for self-employed workers (OEWS covers employees).
- Your own chances: data describes the occupation, not you.
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).
How TryHired builds this data: sources, methods and downloads. Spotted an error? Report a correction.