Also called: Compactor Operator, Heavy Equipment Operator (Landfill)
Drives massive bulldozers and spiked-wheel compactors that crush and spread garbage at landfills.
From a high cab, you push and crush tons of trash with a 50-ton compactor whose steel wheels have giant teeth, sculpting the landfill slope by GPS. At day's end you cover it with soil.
Operating engineers and construction equipment operators.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
High school diploma, about 0 years after high school. High school; heavy equipment training or apprenticeship.
Ways in: On-the-job training, Apprenticeship, Trade school. Training cost: Get paid while you train.
Majors to look at: Heavy Equipment Operation (trade school).
Growing about average (about 4% over 10 years). Construction equipment operators.
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. GPS-guided and semi-autonomous compactors are coming; operators remain, but machines need less skill by 2036.
Classes: Ag mechanics, Small engines.
Official data: O*NET occupation 47-2073.
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.