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Extrusion and drawing operators

Official title Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic (SOC 51-4021)

Also called Extruder operator, Extrusion operator, Aluminum extrusion press operator, Plastics extruder operator, Wire drawing machine operator

In brief

In May 2025, BLS counted 60,840 US extrusion and drawing operators, with median pay of $47,720 a year. Of the BLS counts since 2021, the highest was 65,700, in May 2024. The earliest figure here is an estimate of 40,000 from 1900, not measured the same way as today's count. The last full technology era for extrusion and drawing operators: Manufacturing execution systems, inline dimensional gauging, digital job cards, 2005 to 2020.

What the sources say

Official outlook

BLS projects employment to change +0.7% from 2025 to 2035.

BLS Employment Projections 2025-35

AI exposure studies

  • 8.3% of this job's tasks are exposed to large language models. Not a forecast of job losses. Eloundou and others, 2023
  • 0.91 estimated probability that the whole occupation could be computerised, over an unspecified number of years. Not a forecast of job losses. Frey and Osborne, 2013

Since the 2013 prediction

In 2013, Frey and Osborne put this job's probability of computerisation at 0.91. BLS counted 73,140 of these jobs in May 2013 and 60,840 in May 2025. The count moved sharply in one step, May 2020 to May 2021, when BLS changed how it estimates these counts, so no change is derived here.

Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35. BLS publishes these counts as yearly survey snapshots and cautions against reading them as a precise trend. In May 2021 BLS changed how it estimates these counts (a model-based method using three years of survey data) and moved fully to the 2018 occupation codes, so part of a change across 2021 can come from the method rather than the work.

Last updated .

Cite this page
APA

Future History. (2026, October 11). Extrusion and drawing operators: jobs and pay since 1900 [Data set; data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35]. https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/51-4021

Chicago

Future History. "Extrusion and drawing operators: jobs and pay since 1900." Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35. Last modified October 11, 2026. https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/51-4021.

BibTeX

@misc{futurehistory_51_4021, author = {{Future History}}, title = {Extrusion and drawing operators: jobs and pay since 1900}, year = {2026}, month = oct, howpublished = {\url{https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/51-4021}}, note = {Last updated 2026-10-11. Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35}, }

The access date is today's date on your device.

drag to travel through time
18251850187519001925195019752000now
2026
Known then as Pipe Squirter / Lead-Press Operator / Wire Drawer (pre-industrial and early-industrial era)
Known then as Extrusion Press Operator / Wire Drawing Machine Operator (metal trades era)
Known then as Extruder Operator / Drawing Machine Operator (wartime and postwar plastics expansion)
Known then as Extruding and Drawing Machine Operator, Metal and Plastic (BLS pre-SOC-2000 grouping)
Known then as Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic (BLS SOC 51-4021)
Known today as Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic (BLS SOC 51-4021)
Projected to still be called Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic (BLS SOC 51-4021)
Data from the May 2025 survey
US Employment
61K
Est.

Stated in source: BLS OEWS

Official statistic
Report an error
Median Annual Wage
$47,720
Est.

≈ $46,497 in 2024 prices (derived by us, CPI-adjusted)

Official statistic
Report an error
Beat · 1797

Joseph Bramah patents the first extrusion process for soft metals in 1797, describing a hand-driven plunger that forces preheated metal through a shaped die. He calls the process "squirting" and intends it for lead pipes in his beer-pump systems. In 1820 Thomas Burr applies Bramah's concept using a hydraulic press, producing the first commercially viable lead pipe. The hydraulic extrusion press would not change in its fundamental operating principle for 150 years: billet in, die pressure applied, profile out.

Beat · 1904

The first aluminum extrusion press in the United States enters service at Alcoa's New Kensington, Pennsylvania complex, following Alexander Dick's 1894 hot-extrusion patent for non-ferrous metals. Alcoa's New Kensington plant expands rapidly to include six manufacturing departments: tubes, sheets, rods, bar and wire, extrusion, and jobbing. By the end of World War I the complex employs 3,292 workers, a fifth of the local population, covering over one million square feet on 75 acres.

Beat · 1935

German engineer Paul Troester designs the first single-screw extruder specifically for thermoplastics, initially to apply plastic insulation to electrical wire. Around the same time, Italian engineer Roberto Colombo of LMP pioneers the twin-screw extruder. The thermoplastic extruder creates a new variant of the occupation: the plastics-extruder operator, who manages barrel heating zones, screw speed, and die-head pressure for polymer rather than metal. Within two decades this plastics workforce will rival the metals-press workforce in size.

Beat · 2001

China's accession to the World Trade Organization in December 2001 accelerates the offshoring of commodity metal and plastic extrusion production to lower-cost Asian manufacturers. Combined with the post-dot-com recession, US employment of extruding and drawing machine operators falls sharply from roughly 155,000 in 2000 to an estimated 110,000-120,000 by 2003. The occupational group does not recover to its pre-2001 level: the offshoring wave eliminates the high-volume commodity end of the market (PVC pipe, aluminum bar, wire insulation) while leaving the high-mix specialty end (architectural profiles, medical-grade tubing, precision copper strip) in US plants.

Beat · 2009

The Great Recession delivers a second shock to the occupation. Metal and plastic machine operators lose jobs at rates of 30-40% during the 2007-2010 contraction, with metal drilling and boring operators falling 40.5% and comparable declines across related machining and forming occupations. Production occupation employment in manufacturing recovers only 13% of the 1.5 million jobs lost between 2007 and 2010; the extrusion and drawing workforce does not return to pre-recession levels.

How to read this number

OEWS is a point-in-time survey snapshot, not a continuous time series; BLS advises against using it for year-over-year trend comparison.

Each dot is a cited figure over time; the dotted line only links them (values between aren't measured). Hollow dots are estimates.

Official statistic: Copied by a script from a statistics agency table or a published study's table, not retyped by hand. BLS figures and the forecast and exposure tables are also re-checked against that table on every data run. Researched context: Researched from the cited source rather than copied from it by a script, so it is not machine-checked yet. Spot a mistake? Each figure has a “Report an error” link.

Cited forecasts · present → 2035

Will AI replace extrusion and drawing operators? What the research says

Each figure is stated by the named source; we publish no forecasts of our own. Where sources disagree, we show the disagreement rather than an average.

Each figure is stated by the named source; we publish no forecasts of our own. Where sources disagree, the spread is the honest signal.

What published forecasts say
Forecast change in the number of people doing this work, as published by each named source. Bars share one scale on every role, centred on zero and reaching the end at ±30%. Grey marks a small change, 3% or less either way.
BLS Employment Projections 2025-35
→ 2035
+0.7%
BLS National Employment Matrix, 2025-35 cycle, line for SOC 51-4021 (Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plastic): 60.9 thousand jobs in 2025, projected 61.4 thousand in 2035, a change of +0.4 thousand (+0.7%). Matrix employment counts all jobs in the occupation, including self-employed workers (0.1% of this occupation in 2025). The average for all occupations in this cycle is +3.5%.
Official statisticReport an error
How exposed is this work to AI (research measures)
Scores as published by each study. Each row says what it measures. These measure what AI could technically do, not forecasts of jobs lost.
Frey & Osborne (2013), "The Future of Employment"
2013 study · Probability of computerisation (2013 model)
91%
probability
What this measures

Published appendix value for SOC 2010 51-4021 Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic: probability of computerisation 0.91, rank 560 of 702 (rank 1 is least computerisable). Frey and Osborne estimated in 2013, with a Gaussian-process classifier on O*NET variables, how likely the whole occupation is to be technically automatable over "some unspecified number of years, perhaps a decade or two". It is a probability for the occupation, not a share of tasks and not a forecast of jobs lost.

Official statisticReport an error
Eloundou et al. (2023), "GPTs are GPTs"
2023 study · Share of tasks exposed to LLMs (β, human-rated)
8.3%
of tasks
What this measures

Published occupation-level exposure from the paper's occ_level.csv for O*NET-SOC 51-4021.00 Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic. Shown: human-rated β = 0.083, the share of the occupation's tasks an LLM could do in at least half the time at equal quality, counting tasks that need LLM-powered software at half weight (β = E1 + 0.5 × E2). Other published measures for this occupation: human-rated α (LLM alone) 0.042 and γ (all LLM-assisted) 0.125; GPT-4-rated β 0.021. This measures how much of the work an LLM could touch, not how many jobs disappear.

Official statisticReport an error
Today, in this role

What's changing day to day for extrusion and drawing operators

Three parts of your work where AI is already doing real lifting, and what stays yours.

AI is sitting alongside you hereCut and reel extruded output to specified lengths and weights using shearing or takeoff equipment, coordinating output rate with downstream stacking, packaging, or coiling automation so the line runs without a bottleneck at the takeoff station.

Cut and reel extruded output to specified lengths and weights using shearing or takeoff equipment, coordinating output rate with downstream stacking, packaging, or coiling automation so the line runs without a bottleneck at the takeoff station.[1],[5]

Where your edge is

As servo-controlled pullers and automated stackers handle more of the physical takeoff, focus on coordinating the full cell rather than a single station; cross-train on the downstream banding or coiling equipment so you can cover or troubleshoot the entire line.

AI is sitting alongside you hereRespond to closed-loop control alerts: when the automated system flags a temperature drift or dimensional deviation outside tolerance, interpret the sensor trend, adjust the process parameter manually if the control loop has not self-corrected, and document the intervention.

Respond to closed-loop control alerts: when the automated system flags a temperature drift or dimensional deviation outside tolerance, interpret the sensor trend, adjust the process parameter manually if the control loop has not self-corrected, and document the intervention.[5],[6]

Where your edge is

Study the relationship between screw speed, barrel temperature zones, and output diameter so you can diagnose whether a drift is a die-wear issue (mechanical) or a resin-batch issue (material), rather than waiting for the system to escalate.

AI is sitting alongside you hereConduct planned preventive maintenance tasks on extrusion and drawing equipment (purging barrels, lubricating screw drives, inspecting die lands for wear) and log work orders in the CMMS, using predictive-maintenance alerts to prioritize which checks to perform each shift.

Conduct planned preventive maintenance tasks on extrusion and drawing equipment (purging barrels, lubricating screw drives, inspecting die lands for wear) and log work orders in the CMMS, using predictive-maintenance alerts to prioritize which checks to perform each shift.[7],[5]

Where your edge is

Get certified or cross-trained in vibration analysis basics and infrared thermometry so you can verify whether a predictive-maintenance alert is genuine component fatigue or a sensor drift, cutting unnecessary downtime.

Where extrusion and drawing operators go next

Natural next steps for someone with your foundation: not exits, evolutions.

  • Industrial Machinery Mechanics
    US median pay
    $64,520 (May 2025)
    BLS outlook 2025-35
    +17.8%
  • Machinists
    US median pay
    $58,750 (May 2025)
    BLS outlook 2025-35
    +1%
  • Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and TendersNo timeline for this role yet

What each move takes

A direction you could grow

Industrial Machinery Mechanics

Extrusion operators already maintain and troubleshoot the same equipment they operate, making the step to full industrial machinery mechanic a deepening of existing skills rather than a direction change. As automated extrusion cells reduce the number of full-time operators needed per shift, mechanics who can also program and calibrate the vision systems and SCADA controls will see the strongest demand.

What you'd add
  • · Hydraulic and pneumatic systems diagnosis
  • · PLC fault reading and basic ladder-logic edits (Allen-Bradley or Siemens)
  • · Vibration analysis and infrared thermometry for predictive maintenance
  • · Industrial maintenance certification (NIMS or MSSC CPT)
What it takesSome new skills to pick up
Tools of the era

How has the work of extrusion and drawing operators changed since 1820?

The tools that defined the work, one line per era. Select an era to see how it reshaped the work.

  • Hydraulic lead-pipe and soft-metal press ("squirting"), manual wire-draw bench

    Thomas Burr's hydraulic press (1820) made the first commercial extrusion of lead pipe possible, replacing hand-driven "squirting." Workers loaded preheated billets, controlled the hydraulic ram, and caught the emerging pipe on a mandrel. Wire drawing remained largely manual: the operator gripped the wire with tongs, pulled it through a hardened die set in a draw plate, and coiled the product. Both roles demanded physical strength, tolerance for heat and lead fumes, and the tactile judgment to know when a billet was at working temperature.

  • Steam/electric continuous drawing bench and hydraulic extrusion press (copper, brass, aluminum)

    Steam and later electric motors replaced hand-pull on continuous wire-drawing benches, enabling multi-pass drawing through progressively smaller dies in a single machine pass. Hydraulic extrusion presses grew in scale: the first aluminum extrusion press at Alcoa's New Kensington, Pennsylvania, facility came online around 1904, and by World War I the plant ran six departments including extrusion, rod, bar, wire, and tube. The operator's job shifted from physical pulling to monitoring die temperature, lubricant application, and draw speed, while managing the mechanics of coiling and cutting output.

    Effect on the work

    Alcoa's New Kensington complex employed 3,292 workers across its metal-processing operations by World War I, with the extrusion and drawing departments forming a significant share of that total.

  • Single-screw thermoplastic extruder (Troester 1935) for wire insulation and pipe

    German engineer Paul Troester's 1935 single-screw thermoplastic extruder was the founding machine of the modern plastics-extrusion workforce. Initially used to coat electrical wire with thermoplastic insulation, it was rapidly adapted for PVC pipe, polyethylene tubing, and plastic film. World War II accelerated deployment: aircraft hydraulic lines, ammunition belts, and field communication cables all required extruded plastics. By 1950 a new class of plastics-extruder operator existed alongside the metals-press operators, learning to manage barrel temperatures, screw speeds, and die-head pressures for thermoplastic rather than molten metal.

  • High-throughput twin-screw extruders, aluminum profile presses, continuous wire drawing (electrification era)

    The 1960s-1970s brought high-volume expansion in both sectors. Twin-screw extruders, pioneered by Roberto Colombo at LMP and commercialized widely by the 1960s, improved mixing and allowed compounded materials. Aluminum extrusion demand surged with the postwar construction boom: aluminum window profiles, curtain-wall sections, and architectural trim all ran through extrusion presses. Continuous casting and drawing of copper wire supported the rapid expansion of the US telephone network. The operator's role diversified: metals-press operators managed increasingly large hydraulic presses with 1,000-ton to 10,000-ton capacities, while plastics operators learned to run multi-layer coextrusion dies for packaging film.

  • PLC-based press controls and SCADA process monitoring

    Programmable logic controllers (PLCs), which became common in manufacturing through the late 1970s and 1980s, reached extrusion and drawing machines by the mid-1980s. The first effect was recipe storage: rather than setting temperatures and speeds from hand-written job cards, operators could call up stored programs for each alloy-die-resin combination. The second was closed-loop control: the machine could adjust screw speed or die temperature in response to sensor readings without operator intervention on routine deviations. SCADA systems connected multiple presses to a plant-floor display by the 1990s. The operator role shifted from constant manual adjustment toward exception handling: watching the screen, responding to alarms, and intervening when the automated system could not self-correct.

  • Manufacturing execution systems (MES), inline dimensional gauging, digital job cards

    Manufacturing execution systems (MES) replaced paper job cards and manual lot-tracking across the plant floor through the 2000s and 2010s. For extruder operators, MES meant digital job cards that carried setup parameters, material certificates, and quality hold-points directly to the machine console. Inline laser gauges and ultrasonic wall-thickness sensors gave continuous dimensional feedback without requiring the operator to stop the line for manual measurement. The operator role increasingly required computer literacy alongside mechanical skill: reading MES dashboards, logging quality deviations in the system, and escalating alerts through digital work-order workflows.

  • AI vision inspection, predictive-maintenance analytics, and closed-loop AI process control

    AI-powered machine vision systems (Cognex In-Sight 3800, ISRA VISION) began entering extrusion lines at scale after 2020, replacing manual spot-check sampling with full inline defect detection at high throughput. Predictive-maintenance platforms (Seeq, AspenTech) aggregate historian and SCADA data to flag impending die wear, barrel fouling, or hydraulic-seal degradation before failure occurs. The operator's job is evolving from process monitor to AI-system supervisor: reviewing vision-system heatmaps, validating or overriding automated defect flags, and acting on maintenance-alert queues. As closed-loop AI process control extends further into temperature zone management and screw-speed optimization, the highest-value operator tasks concentrate on setup judgment, die-change speed, and first-article verification.

    Effect on the work

    No definitive study has quantified job displacement from AI vision in extrusion specifically.

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Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic employment and pay by year

On record since1820
Latest US employment60,840 (May 2025)Source: BLS OEWS May 2025Official statisticReport an error
Latest US median pay$47,720 (May 2025)Source: BLS OEWS May 2025Official statisticReport an error
Outlook+0.7% by 2035Source: BLS Employment Projections 2025-35Official statisticReport an error
View all 29 years of cited US data, each linked to its source
YearUS employmentAnnual pay (median unless marked)SourceReport
190040,000n/aEst., Taber Extrusions Researched contextReport
191980,000n/aEst., Pennsylvania Center for the Book Researched contextReport
1955130,000n/aEst., Advanced Plastiform Researched contextReport
1970n/a$7,800Est., BLS Beyond the Numbers Researched contextReport
1980175,000n/aEst., BLS Beyond the Numbers Researched contextReport
2000155,000$29,000Est., BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook Researched contextReport
200393,600$26,450BLS OEWS May 2003 Official statisticReport
200488,980$27,410BLS OEWS May 2004 Official statisticReport
200587,290$28,000BLS OEWS May 2005 Official statisticReport
200693,810$28,250BLS OEWS May 2006 Official statisticReport
200795,330$28,750BLS OEWS May 2007 Official statisticReport
200892,160$29,760BLS OEWS May 2008 Official statisticReport
200981,610$31,080BLS OEWS May 2009 Official statisticReport
201076,260$31,730BLS OEWS May 2010 Official statisticReport
201175,170$32,300BLS OEWS May 2011 Official statisticReport
201274,490$32,330BLS OEWS May 2012 Official statisticReport
201373,140$32,270BLS OEWS May 2013 Official statisticReport
201472,520$32,610BLS OEWS May 2014 Official statisticReport
201572,390$33,120BLS OEWS May 2015 Official statisticReport
201671,960$33,870BLS OEWS May 2016 Official statisticReport
201773,530$34,600BLS OEWS May 2017 Official statisticReport
201875,610$35,150BLS OEWS May 2018 Official statisticReport
201976,940$36,320BLS OEWS May 2019 Official statisticReport
202069,300$37,530BLS OEWS May 2020 Official statisticReport
202159,490$37,750BLS OEWS May 2021 Official statisticReport
202263,490$39,970BLS OEWS May 2022 Official statisticReport
202363,370$44,390BLS OEWS May 2023 Official statisticReport
202465,700$46,980BLS OEWS May 2024 Official statisticReport
202560,840$47,720BLS OEWS May 2025 Official statisticReport
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