Also called: Shearer, Wool Handler
Travels from ranch to ranch shearing wool off sheep with electric clippers, fast and without nicking the animal.
You bend over sheep after sheep, flipping each one and removing the fleece in one piece in about two minutes. Good shearers do 150+ sheep a day. It's like an athletic sport: some shearers travel internationally and compete in shearing contests.
Paid per head; seasonal, so many combine it with other work.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Certificate, about 0 years after high school. Short shearing schools run by universities and wool associations, then lots of practice.
Ways in: Certification, On-the-job training. Training cost: Under $15k.
Majors to look at: Animal Science.
Growing slowly. Tiny niche with a shortage of skilled shearers in the US.
Low risk for 10 years. Shearing robots were tried and failed; holding a sheep and shearing clean by hand stays a human skill in short supply.
Age 16+. One way to start: Sign up for a university or wool growers shearing school (about 1 week), then shear small farm flocks First: A week-long shearing school; beginners often start as wool handlers on a crew
Classes: Animal science CTE, Weight training or PE, Agriculture science.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.