The Datum Report

Occupation 5222 · Skilled trades occupations

Tool makers, tool fitters and markers-out

Half of full-time tool makers, tool fitters and markers-out in the UK earn more than £39,902 a year, and half earn less.

Tool makers, tool fitters and markers-out mark out metal for machining and fit, assemble and repair machine and press tools, dies, jigs, fixtures and other tools.

How people enter it

There are no formal academic requirements although some employers may require GCSEs/S grades. Engineering apprenticeships, BTEC and City and Guilds qualifications are available together with on-the-job training. NVQs/ SVQs at level 2 and 3 are available.

What the work involves

• examines drawings and specifications to determine appropriate method and sequence of operations
• marks out reference points using measuring instruments and tools such as punches, rules and squares
• operates hand and machine tools to shape workpieces to specifications and checks accuracy of machining
• assembles prepared parts, checks their alignment with micrometers, optical projectors and other measuring equipment and adjusts as necessary
• repairs damaged or worn tools

Also called

Die maker · Engineer-toolmaker · Jig maker · Marker-out (engineering) · Tool engineer · Tool fitter · Tool maker

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for tool makers, tool fitters and markers-out, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 3 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Air-conditioning and refrigeration installers and repairers · Metal machining setters and setter-operators · Metal working production and maintenance fitters and technicians · Precision instrument makers and repairers