Jobs for heavy vehicle and mobile equipment service technicians are expected to grow by nine percent by 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That growth is as “as fast as average,” according to the web version of the federal agency’s 2012 Occupational Outlook Handbook.
The BLS projects that 16,200 new jobs in that classification — which appears to include mechanics who use service trucks in their work — will be added in the U.S. by 2022 compared with the 176,300 employed in that vocation in 2012.
The median pay — the level at which half those in the job earn more and half earn less — was $43,820 a year or $21.07 an hour in 2012.
These technicians “repair vehicles such as tractors and trains” and “usually work indoors in noisy repair shops,” the BLS says.
However, the BLS also notes that because the transport of mobile and heavy equipment to a repair shop is often too expensive, “some service technicians travel to worksites to make repairs, often driving long distances.”
The technicians who specialize in field service are generally more experienced, the BLS notes.
“They drive trucks that are specially equipped with replacement parts and tools. These workers spend considerable time outdoors.”
Most of these technicians work for private companies although about seven percent were employed by state and local governments in 2012.
Farm and garden machinery and equipment merchant wholesalers employed about 14 percent of these technicians. Rail transportation employed seven percent. Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction employed six percent. Heavy and civil engineering contraction also employed six percent of these technicians.
Jobs for a similar occupation— diesel service technicians and mechanics — are also expected to grow by nine percent in the decade leading up to 2022
The BLS projects that 21,600 new jobs in that classification will be added in the U.S. by 2022 compared with the 250,800 employed in that vocation in 2012.
The median pay was $42,220 a year or $20.35 an hour in 2012.
“Diesel service technicians and mechanics inspect, repair, or overhaul buses, trucks, and anything else with a diesel engine,” the BLS says in its description of the occupation.
While it notes that most of the work takes place in “well-ventilated and sometimes noisy repair shops,” they also occasionally “repair vehicles on roadsides or at worksites