Hawaii·Production Occupations·SOC 51-4121

Best Welder programs in Hawaii, ranked by enrollment

Use hand-welding, flame-cutting, hand-soldering, or brazing equipment to weld or join metal components or to fill holes, indentations, or seams of fabricated metal.

2 schools in Hawaii run programs that feed this job, graduating 53 people a year. The job pays a median of $79,000 in Hawaii across about 520 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Also calledWirerBrazerWelderSoldererBonderBurnerDipperConnector
Graduates / yr
53
in Hawaii
Median pay · Hawaii
$79,000
BLS OEWS May 2025
Jobs in state
520
people employed
Schools
2
with a feeder program
Avg graduation rate
29%
across those schools
Median net price
per year, IPEDS

Fields of study in Hawaii that lead to this job

Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.

1 programs in Hawaii that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year in Hawaii (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own Hawaii page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
1
CIP 48.0508In Hawaii
53
100.0%
2$36,566$9,429

Top 2 schools in Hawaii

Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 0 of the 2 schools in this state.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad earnings (1 yr)Grad rateNet priceAcceptance
1Honolulu Community College
Honolulu, HI Public · 1 feeder programs
32Welding Technology/Welder25%
2Hawaii Community College
Hilo, HI Public · 1 feeder programs
21Welding Technology/Welder33%

All 2 schools in Hawaii

Every school in Hawaii with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.

All schools in Hawaii that feed this occupation
SchoolCityControlGraduates / yrFeeder programs
Honolulu Community CollegeHonoluluPublic321
Hawaii Community CollegeHiloPublic211

What welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers earn in Hawaii

What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.

Median annual in Hawaii
$79,000
Mean annual
$77,430
Jobs in state
520
What the range looks like
10th pct$50,000Median$79,00090th pct$100,220
Versus the national median
+47.0%

U.S. median $53,750. Hawaii pays above the national figure.

Job concentration
0.31×

1.00× means the state has its expected share of these jobs.

Metro areas in Hawaii

Urban Honolulu, HI
$81,120median
430 jobs
Kahului-Wailuku, HI
$67,280median
40 jobs

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
+2.2%
About as fast as average
Openings per year
45,600
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
9,900
457,300 → 467,200
Typical entry education
High school diploma or equivalent
Plus moderate-term on-the-job training

Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.

How to get in

The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers page.

How to become a Welder

Job zone 2 of 5 · SVP Below 6.0
Typical entry education
High school diploma or equivalent
On-the-job training
Moderate-term on-the-job training

Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.

Some occupations may need little or no previous experience; others require several months to a year of experience. For example, landscaping and groundskeeping workers might require very little training or previous experience, while agricultural equipment operators can benefit from on-the job training.

Ranges from a few days to one year of on-the-job training.

Top skills

MonitoringCritical ThinkingActive ListeningSpeakingReading ComprehensionActive Learning

The same job in other states

Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.

Every major mapped to this job

The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.

All 2 majors mapped to Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers2 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
  • 15.0614Welding Engineering Technology/Technician
  • 48.0508Welding Technology/Welder

Common questions

Answers for people weighing welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers programs in Hawaii.

What degree do you need to become a Welder?+

High school diploma or equivalent is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Welding Technology/Welder, which awarded 53 degrees in Hawaii in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.

Which college majors lead to becoming a Welder?+

The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Precision Metal Working. Together they graduate about 53 people a year in Hawaii.

How much do welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers earn in Hawaii?+

The median is $79,000 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 47.0% above the U.S. median of $53,750. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.

Is demand for welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers growing?+

BLS projects a +2.2% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, about as fast as average, with roughly 45,600 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.

How many schools offer programs for this career in Hawaii?+

2 institutions in Hawaii reported graduates from at least one of the 1 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.

What other job titles do welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers work under?+

Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Wirer, Brazer, Welder, Solderer among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 51-4121.

Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers in other statesTexasKentuckyGeorgiaCaliforniaNorth CarolinaIllinoisFloridaArizona
Programs in HawaiiWelding Technology/Welder

About the data on this page

Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).

  • BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics

    May 2025

    Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.

  • BLS Employment Projections

    2024–34

    Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.

  • IPEDS Completions

    2024-25 (provisional)

    Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.

  • College Scorecard, Field of Study

    2020-21 cohorts

    Median graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.

  • Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes

    latest available

    Graduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.

  • NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk

    CIP 2020 / SOC 2018

    Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.

  • O*NET Database 30.3

    30.3

    Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.

    Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA

All Clema data sources and release dates →

Explore every U.S. college in one conversation

Clema turns plain-language questions into sourced answers across every U.S. institution — earnings, aid, acceptance, graduation, safety, and athletics from IPEDS, College Scorecard, and 10+ federal datasets, built in.

Free for teams up to 3 · No credit card