Also called: Roller, Hot Strip Mill Operator, Rolling Machine Setter
Runs the giant rollers that squeeze glowing slabs of steel or aluminum into sheets, bars and beams.
A slab of red-hot steel rolls past your pulpit and through a series of rollers, getting thinner and longer each pass until it is a coil of sheet metal a mile long. You set roll gaps, watch thickness gauges and stop the line fast if something jams.
Estimated from BLS rolling machine setters; steel mills pay toward the top.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
High school diploma, about 0 years after high school. High school diploma; trained on the job.
Ways in: On-the-job training. Training cost: Get paid while you train.
Shrinking (about -3% over 10 years). Rolling machine setters and operators.
Medium risk for 10 years. Mill control systems already automate much of rolling; crews monitor, adjust and fix rather than run by hand.
Age 18+. One way to start: Apply at steel and aluminum mills or through a staffing agency; new hires are trained on the job
Classes: Physics, Algebra, Shop class.
Official data: O*NET occupation 51-4023.
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.