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Construction Trades

Field of study · CIP 2020

Construction Trades is one of the fields of study in the U.S. Department of Education's Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP). It contains 24 detailed programs and, through the official CIP–SOC crosswalk, connects to 37 occupations employing about 6,676,380 workers, with a median wage of $58,140. The crosswalk shows which jobs a field of study is related to — not a guarantee of entry.

What the occupations pay

Median annual wage across the occupations this field of study leads to, from BLS OEWS (national, cross-industry, May 2024). The middle range is the 25th–75th percentile of those occupation medians — it describes the field, not any one job or graduate.

Median occupation wage $58,140
Middle range (p25–p75) $50,970 – $62,970
Occupations with wage data 37 of 37

AI exposure of this field of study

Two published studies estimate how exposed each occupation is to today's AI. The OpenAI "GPTs are GPTs" study rates the share of an occupation's tasks a large language model (with tools) could speed up by half or more; averaged across the occupations this field of study leads to it is 11% — 6th percentile of all fields of study. The independent Felten/Raj/Seamans AI Occupational Exposure index averages -1.13 here.

Computed across the 37 of 37 occupations this field leads to that carry a published exposure score.

The most-exposed fields of study lead to knowledge, language and analytical work; the least-exposed lead to physical trades and hands-on production. Exposure measures where AI could assist tasks, not a prediction that these jobs will be automated; high exposure most often means augmentation. Bands are comparable across the cluster, education, job-zone and field-of-study tiers (same two studies, same percentile method).

Where this field of study leads

The largest occupations connected to this field by the CIP–SOC crosswalk, by employment. Wage and employment describe the occupation, not an individual.

Occupation Workers Median pay
Maintenance and Repair Workers, General 1,531,700 $48,620
First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers 806,080 $78,690
Electricians 742,580 $62,350
Carpenters 697,740 $59,310
First-Line Supervisors of Mechanics, Installers, and Repairers 600,680 $78,300
Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters 455,940 $62,970
Painters, Construction and Maintenance 224,180 $48,660
Cement Masons and Concrete Finishers 205,230 $54,660
First-Line Supervisors of Housekeeping and Janitorial Workers 174,660 $47,520
Facilities Managers 141,090 $104,690
Construction and Building Inspectors 137,210 $72,120
Roofers 136,740 $50,970
Electrical Power-Line Installers and Repairers 123,680 $92,560
Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers 82,900 $58,140
Security and Fire Alarm Systems Installers 81,510 $59,300
Structural Iron and Steel Workers 64,720 $62,700
Civil Engineering Technologists and Technicians 62,130 $64,200
Glaziers 57,000 $55,440
Brickmasons and Blockmasons 53,520 $60,800
Tile and Stone Setters 38,740 $52,240
Insulation Workers, Floor, Ceiling, and Wall 38,610 $48,680
Septic Tank Servicers and Sewer Pipe Cleaners 29,050 $49,140
Solar Photovoltaic Installers 28,280 $51,860
Insulation Workers, Mechanical 25,640 $57,250
Floor Layers, Except Carpet, Wood, and Hard Tiles 24,850 $54,340
Electrical and Electronics Repairers, Powerhouse, Substation, and Relay 23,040 $100,940
Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas 17,410 $59,600
Carpet Installers 14,980 $49,850
Rotary Drill Operators, Oil and Gas 13,090 $65,010
Derrick Operators, Oil and Gas 11,040 $62,740
Stonemasons 8,750 $51,990
Signal and Track Switch Repairers 8,210 $83,600
Explosives Workers, Ordnance Handling Experts, and Blasters 5,680 $59,110
Floor Sanders and Finishers 4,140 $49,150
Manufactured Building and Mobile Home Installers 2,610 $41,080
Paperhangers 1,520 $48,260
Terrazzo Workers and Finishers 1,450 $57,260

Programs in this field

A sample of the detailed CIP programs within this family. The full family contains 24 programs.

  • 46.0505 Blasting/Blaster
  • 46.0415 Building Construction Technology/Technician
  • 46.0412 Building/Construction Site Management/Manager
  • 46.0403 Building/Home/Construction Inspection/Inspector
  • 46.0401 Building/Property Maintenance
  • 46.0201 Carpentry/Carpenter
  • 46.0413 Carpet, Floor, and Tile Worker
  • 46.0402 Concrete Finishing/Concrete Finisher
  • 46.0000 Construction Trades, General
  • 46.0404 Drywall Installation/Drywaller
  • 46.0301 Electrical and Power Transmission Installation/Installer, General
  • 46.0399 Electrical and Power Transmission Installers, Other
  • 46.0302 Electrician
  • 46.0406 Glazier
  • 46.0414 Insulator
  • 46.0303 Lineworker
  • 46.0101 Mason/Masonry
  • 46.0411 Metal Building Assembly/Assembler
  • 46.0408 Painting/Painter and Wall Coverer
  • 46.0502 Pipefitting/Pipefitter and Sprinkler Fitter
  • 46.0503 Plumbing Technology/Plumber
  • 46.0599 Plumbing and Related Water Supply Services, Other
  • 46.0410 Roofer
  • 46.0504 Well Drilling/Driller

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 3, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Construction Trades." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; CIP-2020 2020; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/programs/construction-trades

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Construction Trades. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/programs/construction-trades

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-construction-trades,
  title  = {Construction Trades},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; CIP-2020 2020; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/programs/construction-trades}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.