The Datum Report

Occupation 8113 · Process, plant and machine operatives

Chemical and related process operatives

Half of full-time chemical and related process operatives in the UK earn more than £33,959 a year, and half earn less.

Chemical and related process operatives operate machinery in the processing of chemical and related materials by chemical, heat or other treatment, manufacture synthetic materials and bleach, dye or otherwise treat textiles, and treat hides, skins and pelts for making into fur, leather and skin products.

How people enter it

There are no formal academic entry requirements, although some employers require entrants to possess GCSEs/S grades. Training is typically received on-the-job, supplemented by specialised training courses. Vocational qualifications in Process Technology at levels 2 and 3 and apprenticeships are available.

What the work involves

• loads prescribed quantities of ingredients into plant equipment, starts operational cycle, monitors instruments and gauges indicating conditions affecting the operation of the plant and adjusts controls as necessary
• prepares dye, bleaching, water repellent, fixing salt and other chemical solutions to finish and treat textiles
• regulates input of polymer into melting unit, extrudes polymer, gathers extruded filaments and feeds strands through rolling, cutting and treatment units to produce synthetic fibre
• operates kilns, furnaces and ovens to produce charcoal, coke and other carbon products
• operates machines to coat film and tape with sensitising material and otherwise impregnate materials by immersion, split and mould mica and produce asbestos pipes and sheets
• cuts and trims skins, hides and pelts, removes wool, hair, flesh and other waste material, and washes, limes, tans, dyes and otherwise treats hides for making into leather, skin and fur products
• withdraws samples for quality control testing, removes and regulates discharge of batch material upon completion of processing

Also called

Chemical process operator · Gas producer operator · Process technician (chemical mfr) · Process worker (cement mfr) · Process worker (nuclear fuel production)

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for chemical and related process operatives, 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. 6 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

Food, drink and tobacco process operatives · Metal making and treating process operatives · Plastics process operatives · Process operatives n.e.c. · Textile process operatives