The Datum Report

Occupation 8139 · Process, plant and machine operatives

Plant and machine operatives n.e.c.

Half of full-time plant and machine operatives n.e.c. in the UK earn more than £29,259 a year, and half earn less.

Job holders in this unit group operate a variety of plant and machinery not elsewhere classified in minor group 813: Plant and machine operatives.

How people enter it

There are no formal academic entry requirements. Training is typically provided on-the-job. NVQs/ SVQs are available in some areas.

What the work involves

• operates acetylene torches and other cutting equipment to dismantle boilers, cars, ships, railway track, engines, machinery and other scrap metal
• bends, coils, crimps and spins metal wires in the manufacture of cables, springs, ropes and other wire goods
• operates machines in the manufacture of nuts, bolts, nails, screws, pins, rivets, etc.
• fills grease gun with grease of appropriate grade, and applies grease or oil to grease points or lubrication holes in machinery or equipment and over bearings, axles and other similar parts
• ensures that rollers in rope haulage system are well greased and running freely
• inspects machines and equipment, and reports any faults

Also called

Bench hand (metal trades) · Cable maker (spring mfr) · Laser operator · Manufacturer (metal goods mfr) · Saw doctor

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for plant and machine operatives n.e.c., 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

Energy plant operatives · Mining and quarry workers and related operatives · Paper and wood machine operatives · Printing machine assistants · Water and sewerage plant operatives