Also called: Injection Mold Maker
Builds and repairs the steel molds that shape plastic parts like toothbrush handles, LEGO-style bricks and car dashboards.
A mold that makes 10,000 bottle caps a day came back with a flaw. You take it apart on your bench, polish a cavity to a mirror finish, weld and re-cut a damaged edge, and put it back together like a giant steel puzzle.
Estimate; same BLS category as tool and die makers.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Apprenticeship, about 4 years after high school. Mold-making apprenticeship (often 4 years) or tool-and-die program.
Ways in: Apprenticeship, Trade school, On-the-job training. Training cost: Get paid while you train.
Majors to look at: Tool and Die Technology (trade school).
Shrinking (about -4% over 10 years). Grouped with tool and die makers.
Low risk for 10 years. Mold building and repair is high-skill hand and machine work; AI helps simulate fill but cannot fit and fix steel.
Classes: Machining CTE class, Geometry, Blueprint reading.
Official data: O*NET occupation 51-4111.
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.