Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand
SOC 53-7062 · 2024-2034
Manually move freight, stock, luggage, or other materials, or perform other general labor. Includes all manual laborers not elsewhere classified.
How the U.S. Department of Labor describes this work. Published in English only.
What California expects of this job
- Typical pay in California
- $45,689per year
- Projected openings
- 502,850
- Projected change
- +8.6%
- Usually needs
- No formal educational credential
Bright Outlook — a U.S. Department of Labor designation
Numerous Job Openings
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.
- Coordination
- Active Listening
- Speaking
- Reading Comprehension
- Monitoring
- Time Management
Pay by region
| Region | Typical pay in California | Projected openings |
|---|---|---|
| Oakland-Fremont-Berkeley MD (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties) | $50,045 | 28,510 |
| Bakersfield-Delano MSA (Kern County) | $47,938 | 12,760 |
| San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City MD (San Francisco and San Mateo Counties) | $47,767 | 14,490 |
| Stockton-Lodi MSA (San Joaquin County) | $47,180 | 23,630 |
| San Rafael MD (Marin County) | $47,165 | 1,320 |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA (San Benito and Santa Clara Counties) | $47,149 | 19,030 |
| Vallejo MSA (Solano County) | $47,026 | 3,100 |
| Napa MSA (Napa County) | $46,749 | 1,550 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties) | $46,063 | 109,590 |
| Santa Rosa-Petaluma MSA (Sonoma County) | $45,623 | 4,210 |
| Hanford-Corcoran MSA (Kings County) | $45,551 | 1,010 |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom MSA (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo Counties) | $45,500 | 27,300 |
| Santa Cruz-Watsonville MSA (Santa Cruz County) | $42,171 | 1,630 |
| North Valley-Northern Mountains Region (Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Trinity Counties) | $41,556 | 1,660 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale MD (Los Angeles County) | $40,813 | 132,490 |
| Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura MSA (Ventura County) | $40,143 | 7,290 |
| Eastern Sierra-Mother Lode Region (Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Inyo, Mariposa, Mono, and Tuolumne Counties) | $40,112 | 720 |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad MSA (San Diego County) | $39,948 | 34,380 |
| North Coast Region (Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, and Mendocino Counties) | $39,805 | 1,500 |
| Santa Maria-Santa Barbara MSA (Santa Barbara County) | $39,712 | 3,190 |
| San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles MSA (San Luis Obispo County) | $39,559 | 1,630 |
| Yuba City MSA (Sutter and Yuba Counties) | $39,241 | 800 |
| Chico MSA (Butte County) | $38,688 | 1,390 |
| Visalia MSA (Tulare County) | $38,657 | 5,630 |
| Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine MD (Orange County) | $38,301 | 51,130 |
| Merced MSA (Merced County) | $38,207 | 1,530 |
| Modesto MSA (Stanislaus County) | $38,207 | 6,130 |
| El Centro MSA (Imperial County) | $38,156 | 1,230 |
| Fresno MSA (Fresno and Madera Counties) | $38,063 | 11,600 |
| Redding MSA (Shasta County) | $37,602 | 1,660 |
What the pay actually ranges across
- The lowest-paid tenth earn under
- $36,849
- A quarter earn under
- $38,719
- Half earn under
- $45,689
- Three quarters earn under
- $50,022
- The highest-paid tenth earn over
- $58,963
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Packers and Packagers, Hand | $38,076 | 104,810 | -3.1% |
| Machine Feeders and Offbearers | $41,264 | 5,140 | -10.2% |
| Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators | $48,816 | 100,140 | +11.4% |
| Conveyor Operators and Tenders | $44,095 | 2,820 | +3.6% |
| Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders | $45,024 | 51,810 | +4.1% |
| Maintenance Workers, Machinery | $69,758 | 3,750 | 0% |