Where Sheet Metal Workers Move Next
Occupation move map · Construction and Extraction
Most career-change advice for sheet metal workers is somebody's opinion. This page is not. It is built from 58,121 observed occupation changes in the U.S. Current Population Survey — real people, tracked from one job to the next, not survey respondents describing what they would like to do.
Of every 100 sheet metal workers who moved to a different occupation group, here is where they went.
| Destination | Share of movers | Observations | Move type | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers | 6.1% | 12 | lateral | Thin evidence (fewer than 30) |
| First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers | 2.3% | 11 | lateral | Thin evidence (fewer than 30) |
| Driver/Sales Workers | 1.9% | 8 | lateral | Thin evidence (fewer than 30) |
| Construction Managers | 1.6% | 8 | lateral | Thin evidence (fewer than 30) |
| Farmers, Ranchers, and Other Agricultural Managers | 1.6% | 1 | lateral | Thin evidence (fewer than 30) |
The most common destination is first-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers, at 6.1% of movers (12 observed transitions); the second is first-line supervisors of retail sales workers at 2.3% (11). Neither is a default outcome: the leading move is roughly a 1-in-16 result among people who move at all.
Seen at the group level, split estimated
Movers from sheet metal workers were observed entering the occupation groups these belong to, but the split to each specific occupation was not directly observed, so no share is shown.
- Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers — estimated, 0 direct observations
- Architectural and Engineering Managers — estimated, 0 direct observations
- Ambulance Drivers and Attendants, Except Emergency Medical Technicians — estimated, 0 direct observations
Occupations with a similar skill profile
Ranked by skill similarity from O*NET, not by observed moves. A place to look, not a measured path.
- Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers
- Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters
- Heat Treating Equipment Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Insulation Workers, Floor, Ceiling, and Wall
- Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers
- Structural Iron and Steel Workers
- Mechanical Door Repairers
- Pipelayers
How to read these numbers honestly
These are shares conditional on moving — the denominator is people in this occupation who changed to a different occupation group, not everyone in it. Most people in any given period do not move at all, so this page tells you the direction of movement, not how likely you are to move.
The underlying occupation codes are re-derived from job descriptions at each interview, which manufactures some transitions that never happened. We control for that four ways: we work at coarse occupation groupings rather than fine codes, we down-weight occupation changes not corroborated by an employer or industry change, we prefer the dependent-coded monthly survey over the retrospective annual one, and we shrink thin cells toward a skill-similarity prior. The residual uncertainty is why every row carries its observation count.
A row is marked Observed when at least 30 direct transitions were recorded; Thin evidence when fewer were; and Estimated when none were — the move to that occupation's group was observed, and the split to this particular occupation is allocated by skill similarity, so no share is shown.
Snapshot cps-movegraph-759b8583ddf6, frozen June 30, 2026. Held-out validation: precision@5 of 0.238, against 0.163 for a popularity baseline and 0.154 for a skill-similarity baseline.
What this page cannot tell you
It cannot tell you which of these moves fits your own record. A destination that many movers take is still the wrong move for most individuals — the ranking is population-level, and your last three roles, your credentials and what you actually want change it substantially.
See which of these moves your own experience already supports.
Career Companion reads your résumé and scores these destinations against what you have actually done, not against the population average. Start free →