Mississippi·Production Occupations·SOC 51-9124

Best Coating programs in Mississippi, ranked by enrollment

Set up, operate, or tend spraying or rolling machines to coat or paint any of a wide variety of products, including glassware, cloth, ceramics, metal, plastic, paper, or wood, with lacquer, silver, copper, rubber, varnish, glaze, enamel,.

7 schools in Mississippi run programs that feed this job, graduating 90 people a year. The job pays a median of $53,170 in Mississippi across about 2,010 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Also calledPainterCoater OperatorPaint Technician (Paint Tech)Automotive Painter (Auto Painter)DoperCoaterDaggerDipper
Graduates / yr
90
in Mississippi
Median pay · Mississippi
$53,170
BLS OEWS May 2025
Jobs in state
2,010
people employed
Schools
7
with a feeder program
Avg graduation rate
41%
across those schools
Median net price
per year, IPEDS

Fields of study in Mississippi that lead to this job

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

1 programs in Mississippi that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year in Mississippi (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 Mississippi page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
190
100.0%
7$37,089$11,790

Top 7 schools in Mississippi

Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 1 of the 7 schools in this state.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad earnings (1 yr)Grad rateNet priceAcceptance
1Coahoma Community College
Clarksdale, MS Public · 1 feeder programs
44Autobody/Collision and Repair Technology/Technician41%
2Northwest Mississippi Community College
Senatobia, MS Public · 1 feeder programs
13Autobody/Collision and Repair Technology/Technician45%
3Hinds Community College
Raymond, MS Public · 1 feeder programs
10Autobody/Collision and Repair Technology/Technician$15,55343%
4Holmes Community College
Goodman, MS Public · 1 feeder programs
9Autobody/Collision and Repair Technology/Technician39%
5East Central Community College
Decatur, MS Public · 1 feeder programs
7Autobody/Collision and Repair Technology/Technician36%
6Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College
Perkinston, MS Public · 1 feeder programs
4Autobody/Collision and Repair Technology/Technician48%
7Northeast Mississippi Community College
Booneville, MS Public · 1 feeder programs
3Autobody/Collision and Repair Technology/Technician34%

All 7 schools in Mississippi

Every school in Mississippi 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 Mississippi that feed this occupation
SchoolCityControlGraduates / yrFeeder programs
Coahoma Community CollegeClarksdalePublic441
Northwest Mississippi Community CollegeSenatobiaPublic131
Hinds Community CollegeRaymondPublic101
Holmes Community CollegeGoodmanPublic91
East Central Community CollegeDecaturPublic71
Mississippi Gulf Coast Community CollegePerkinstonPublic41
Northeast Mississippi Community CollegeBoonevillePublic31

What coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders earn in Mississippi

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

Median annual in Mississippi
$53,170
Mean annual
$54,580
Jobs in state
2,010
What the range looks like
10th pct$36,190Median$53,17090th pct$73,790
Versus the national median
+10.2%

U.S. median $48,250. Mississippi pays above the national figure.

Job concentration
1.70×

Concentrated here: Mississippi employs more of this job per worker than the U.S. average.

Metro areas in Mississippi

Gulfport-Biloxi, MS
$63,180median
700 jobs
Jackson, MS
$49,580median
190 jobs
Hattiesburg, MS
$44,500median
30 jobs

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
+0.7%
Little or no change
Openings per year
15,800
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
1,200
165,500 → 166,700
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 Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders page.

How to become a Coating

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 ThinkingReading ComprehensionActive ListeningLearning StrategiesSpeaking

The same job in other states

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

Related careers in Mississippi

Every major mapped to this job

The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.

All 1 majors mapped to Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders1 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
  • 47.0603Autobody/Collision and Repair Technology/Technician

Common questions

Answers for people weighing coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders programs in Mississippi.

What degree do you need to become a Coating?+

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 Autobody/Collision and Repair Technology/Technician, which awarded 90 degrees in Mississippi in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.

Which college majors lead to becoming a Coating?+

The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Vehicle Maintenance and Repair Technologies/Technicians. Together they graduate about 90 people a year in Mississippi.

How much do coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders earn in Mississippi?+

The median is $53,170 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 10.2% above the U.S. median of $48,250. 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 coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders growing?+

BLS projects a +0.7% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, little or no change, with roughly 15,800 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.

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

7 institutions in Mississippi 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 coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tenders work under?+

Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Painter, Coater Operator, Paint Technician (Paint Tech), Automotive Painter (Auto Painter) among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 51-9124.

Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders in other statesTexasNorth CarolinaOklahomaCaliforniaIllinoisTennesseeColoradoGeorgia

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

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