Food Batchmakers
SOC 51-3092 · 2024-2034
Set up and operate equipment that mixes or blends ingredients used in the manufacturing of food products. Includes candy makers and cheese makers.
How the U.S. Department of Labor describes this work. Published in English only.
What California expects of this job
- Typical pay in California
- $42,621per year
- Projected openings
- 17,970
- Projected change
- +7.9%
- 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.
- Operations Monitoring
- Critical Thinking
- Reading Comprehension
- Operation and Control
- Speaking
- Coordination
Pay by region
| Region | Typical pay in California | Projected openings |
|---|---|---|
| North Coast Region (Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, and Mendocino Counties) | $51,791 | 130 |
| Hanford-Corcoran MSA (Kings County) | $48,293 | 120 |
| Merced MSA (Merced County) | $47,882 | 310 |
| Modesto MSA (Stanislaus County) | $47,882 | 520 |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA (San Benito and Santa Clara Counties) | $47,359 | 520 |
| Santa Rosa-Petaluma MSA (Sonoma County) | $46,702 | 400 |
| Bakersfield-Delano MSA (Kern County) | $46,538 | 380 |
| Santa Cruz-Watsonville MSA (Santa Cruz County) | $45,512 | 120 |
| Oakland-Fremont-Berkeley MD (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties) | $44,596 | 1,620 |
| Chico MSA (Butte County) | $43,963 | 50 |
| North Valley-Northern Mountains Region (Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Trinity Counties) | $43,645 | 110 |
| San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City MD (San Francisco and San Mateo Counties) | $43,519 | 1,030 |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad MSA (San Diego County) | $42,824 | 1,010 |
| Stockton-Lodi MSA (San Joaquin County) | $42,465 | 460 |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom MSA (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo Counties) | $41,152 | 580 |
| Fresno MSA (Fresno and Madera Counties) | $40,926 | 480 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties) | $39,541 | 1,440 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale MD (Los Angeles County) | $39,139 | 4,580 |
| Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine MD (Orange County) | $38,682 | 1,390 |
| San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles MSA (San Luis Obispo County) | $38,464 | 130 |
| Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura MSA (Ventura County) | $37,530 | 240 |
| Santa Maria-Santa Barbara MSA (Santa Barbara County) | $37,510 | 150 |
| Visalia MSA (Tulare County) | $37,489 | 560 |
| Vallejo MSA (Solano County) | $36,925 | 470 |
| San Rafael MD (Marin County) | Not reported | 130 |
| Yuba City MSA (Sutter and Yuba Counties) | Not reported | 40 |
What the pay actually ranges across
- The lowest-paid tenth earn under
- $36,515
- A quarter earn under
- $38,182
- Half earn under
- $42,621
- Three quarters earn under
- $47,755
- The highest-paid tenth earn over
- $59,334
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders | $45,761 | 3,190 | 0% |
| Food and Tobacco Roasting, Baking, and Drying Machine Operators and Tenders | $46,641 | 2,090 | 0% |
| Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders | $51,796 | 4,990 | -8.5% |
| Bakers | $44,104 | 52,930 | +8.8% |
| Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders | $54,117 | 14,400 | -4.8% |
| Graders and Sorters, Agricultural Products | $37,314 | 11,300 | -5.7% |
Programs that train for this job — 1
Master Brewers (Certificate)
UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education · Davis · $17,125