Mobile Heavy Equipment Mechanics, Except Engines
SOC 49-3042 · 2024-2034
Diagnose, adjust, repair, or overhaul mobile mechanical, hydraulic, and pneumatic equipment, such as cranes, bulldozers, graders, and conveyors, used in construction, logging, and mining.
How the U.S. Department of Labor describes this work. Published in English only.
What California expects of this job
- Typical pay in California
- $80,771per year
- Projected openings
- 18,430
- Projected change
- +6.8%
- Usually needs
- High school diploma or equivalent
Bright Outlook — a U.S. Department of Labor designation
Rapid Growth
The Department's own designation, made from its national projections. It is not this project's assessment and it is not California's: every other figure on this page comes from California's projection, which can point the other way and for some occupations does.
Skills this work uses most
O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, rates how important each of these is to this work, and they are listed in that order, most important first. The ratings themselves are not shown, because the data carries the number without the scale it was measured on. The names are as published, in English.
- Repairing
- Troubleshooting
- Equipment Maintenance
- Operations Monitoring
- Operation and Control
- Quality Control Analysis
Pay by region
| Region | Typical pay in California | Projected openings |
|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale MD (Los Angeles County) | $97,944 | 6,310 |
| Oakland-Fremont-Berkeley MD (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties) | $97,216 | 1,980 |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA (San Benito and Santa Clara Counties) | $87,590 | 430 |
| San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City MD (San Francisco and San Mateo Counties) | $86,511 | 380 |
| San Rafael MD (Marin County) | $84,968 | 70 |
| San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles MSA (San Luis Obispo County) | $83,009 | 130 |
| Vallejo MSA (Solano County) | $82,178 | 330 |
| Santa Cruz-Watsonville MSA (Santa Cruz County) | $80,113 | 60 |
| Yuba City MSA (Sutter and Yuba Counties) | $79,898 | 140 |
| Santa Maria-Santa Barbara MSA (Santa Barbara County) | $79,610 | 200 |
| Santa Rosa-Petaluma MSA (Sonoma County) | $77,710 | 170 |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom MSA (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo Counties) | $77,330 | 1,130 |
| Salinas MSA (Monterey County) | $77,217 | 200 |
| Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine MD (Orange County) | $76,013 | 1,340 |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad MSA (San Diego County) | $75,872 | 1,090 |
| Napa MSA (Napa County) | $75,584 | 60 |
| Redding MSA (Shasta County) | $75,143 | 130 |
| North Coast Region (Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, and Mendocino Counties) | $73,982 | 120 |
| North Valley-Northern Mountains Region (Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Trinity Counties) | $73,952 | 160 |
| Chico MSA (Butte County) | $73,787 | 90 |
| Hanford-Corcoran MSA (Kings County) | $73,654 | 40 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties) | $73,346 | 2,950 |
| Stockton-Lodi MSA (San Joaquin County) | $73,263 | 530 |
| Eastern Sierra-Mother Lode Region (Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Inyo, Mariposa, Mono, and Tuolumne Counties) | $73,202 | 80 |
| Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura MSA (Ventura County) | $72,699 | 350 |
| Fresno MSA (Fresno and Madera Counties) | $71,518 | 820 |
| El Centro MSA (Imperial County) | $70,717 | 100 |
| Bakersfield-Delano MSA (Kern County) | $68,950 | 680 |
| Visalia MSA (Tulare County) | $65,941 | 180 |
| Merced MSA (Merced County) | $58,403 | 80 |
| Modesto MSA (Stanislaus County) | $58,403 | 210 |
What the pay actually ranges across
- The lowest-paid tenth earn under
- $49,234
- A quarter earn under
- $65,635
- Half earn under
- $80,771
- Three quarters earn under
- $97,295
- The highest-paid tenth earn over
- $132,966
A median is one point. These are the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2026 figures for California, and they say how far apart the people doing this job actually are. Read them as the spread across everyone already in the work — not as a starting wage and not as a promise about where anyone lands.
Similar work
O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, names these as occupations involving work similar to this one — its own reading of the job, not a grouping by code. They keep O*NET's order, and only those California publishes a projection for are shown.
| Occupation | Typical pay in California | Projected openings | Projected change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Industrial Machinery Mechanics | $76,504 | 28,510 | +13.8% |
| Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists | $76,041 | 20,390 | +5.1% |
| Maintenance Workers, Machinery | $69,758 | 3,750 | 0% |
| Engine and Other Machine Assemblers | $47,878 | 960 | -16.7% |
| Millwrights | $80,154 | 2,010 | 0% |
| Farm Equipment Mechanics and Service Technicians | $55,311 | 4,900 | +5.4% |
Programs that train for this job — 2
Forklift Certification
Harbor Occupational Center - LAUSD · San Pedro · $539
CAT Apprenticeship Program
San Joaquin Delta College · Stockton · $0