The Datum Report

Occupation 8115 · Process, plant and machine operatives

Metal making and treating process operatives

Half of full-time metal making and treating process operatives in the UK earn more than £32,871 a year, and half earn less.

Metal making and treating process operatives operate furnaces, ovens and other heating vessels, drawing, rolling, extruding, galvanising, forging and other metal processing equipment to smelt, shape, coat and treat metal and metal products.

How people enter it

There are no formal academic entry requirements. Training is typically provided on-the-job. Vocational qualifications at level 2 and 3 in relevant areas, including metal and materials processing and finishing. are available.

What the work involves

• charges furnace, operates controls to regulate furnace temperature, and adds oxidising, alloying and fluxing agents as required
• withdraws samples of molten metal for analysis, taps slag from surface of molten metal and directs flow of molten metal into casts
• sets rolling speed, tension and space between rolls, guides the metal to and from rollers, and monitors the rolling process to detect irregularities, and ensure that the gauge and finish match required specifications
• operates equipment to remove dirt, scale and other surface impurities by immersion in chemical solution
• heats metal or metal articles in furnace, allows to cool for a specified time or quenches in brine, oil or water to harden, reduces brittleness and restores ductility
• operates piercing, extruding, pressing and other metal processing equipment to shape and treat metal or metal articles
• coats metal parts and articles electrolytically, forms metal articles by electro- and vacuum-deposition, dips and sprays articles with another metal, plastic powder or material and treats articles chemically to produce desired finishes

Also called

Degreaser (metal trades) · Electroplater · Furnaceman (metal trades) · Process worker (nickel mfr) · Wire drawer

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for metal making and treating 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. 7 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

Chemical and related process operatives · Food, drink and tobacco process operatives · Plastics process operatives · Process operatives n.e.c. · Textile process operatives