Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers
Design, fabricate, adjust, repair, or appraise jewelry, gold, silver, other precious metals, or gems.
Also called: Appraiser · Artisan Jeweler · Bench Jeweler · Caster · Gemologist · Goldsmith
Median pay (national)
$49,140
$33,890–$81,610 (10th–90th)
Employed (US)
23,420
BLS OEWS, May 2024
Outlook 2024–34
-5.5%
~4,000 openings/yr
Typical entry
High school diploma or equivalent
What the numbers say
Refit analysis ·Pay for jewelers and precious stone and metal workers shows a broad range: the top 10% earn $81,610 versus $33,890 at the bottom 10% — 2.4x. The median of $49,140 leaves roughly 66% of headroom to the 90th percentile, which is where seniority, specialization, and the skills below tend to pay off.
Refit analysis ·Employment is projected to change -5.5% from 2024 to 2034 — a projected decline, against +3% across all occupations. Even so, BLS projects about 4,000 openings a year, mostly to replace workers who retire or change careers.
Refit analysis ·Where you work moves the number a lot. Across the 48 states with released data, Virginia pays the most for this role (median $60,940, +24% vs the national median), while Puerto Rico sits lowest at $20,700 — a 194% spread for the same job title.
Refit analysis ·O*NET rates Active Listening, Speaking, Critical Thinking as the highest-importance skills here — so a resume aimed at this role should lead with evidence of those, not a generic skills list.
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Top skills employers ask for
Ranked by O*NET importance for this occupation.
- Active Listening
- Speaking
- Critical Thinking
- Reading Comprehension
- Monitoring
- Writing
- Active Learning
- Learning Strategies
- Mathematics
- Science
What they actually do
Core O*NET tasks for this role.
- 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.
- Grade stones based on their color, perfection, and quality of cut.
- Select and acquire metals and gems for designs.
Tools & technology
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe Photoshop
- Intuit QuickBooks
- Computer assisted jewelry design CAD software
- Customer information databases
- Inventory tracking software
- Jewelry store point of sale POS software
- Metal designing software
- Retail management software
- Web browser software
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft Word
Knowledge areas
- Customer and Personal Service
- Design
- Production and Processing
- Sales and Marketing
- Administration and Management
- Mechanical
- Administrative
- Engineering and Technology