occupation · 47-5032 · detailed
Explosives Workers, Ordnance Handling Experts, and Blasters — wages and employment
Explosives Workers, Ordnance Handling Experts, and Blasters earned a median annual wage of $59,110 in the United States in May 2024, with 5,680 people employed, according to the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
What stands out
Explosives Workers, Ordnance Handling Experts, and Blasters earned a median annual wage of $59,110 in the United States in May 2024, with 5,680 people employed, according to the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. The lowest-paid tenth earned $45,160 or less, the best-paid tenth $104,210 or more. Since May 2023 the median moved from $61,590 to $59,110, -4.0 %. The best-paying state is New York at $104,320; the lowest Puerto Rico at $28,870. Among metropolitan areas, Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV pays the highest median, $104,210. Wages are as published by BLS for May of each year; '≥ $239,200' is BLS's top code. Every value links to its fact record.
United States, year by year
Annual wages at the median, mean and four percentiles; employment is the May estimate.
| Reference | Employment | Median | Mean | 10th | 25th | 75th | 90th | Median hourly | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2024 | 5,680 | $59,110 | $66,840 | $45,160 | $49,860 | $80,050 | $104,210 | $28.42 | evidence → |
| May 2023 | 4,610 | $61,590 | $65,600 | $42,670 | $49,710 | $79,580 | $89,400 | $29.61 | evidence → |
By state
Median annual wage, May 2024, highest first. Each state has its own record with the full series.
| State | Median annual | Employment |
|---|---|---|
| New York | $104,320 | 60 |
| Tennessee | $102,060 | 120 |
| Connecticut | $101,020 | — |
| Maryland | $93,550 | 770 |
| California | $87,110 | 180 |
| Wyoming | $86,740 | 30 |
| Florida | $84,520 | 90 |
| New Mexico | $84,050 | 80 |
| Illinois | $82,710 | 130 |
| Hawaii | $77,460 | 70 |
| Washington | $77,210 | — |
| North Carolina | $76,900 | 80 |
| Colorado | $69,740 | 90 |
| Montana | $69,330 | 60 |
| Ohio | $66,440 | 80 |
| Alabama | $65,190 | 80 |
| South Dakota | $63,470 | — |
| Arizona | $63,010 | 30 |
| Pennsylvania | $62,670 | 90 |
| Missouri | $62,500 | 240 |
| Virginia | $59,840 | 150 |
| Idaho | $58,180 | — |
| Nevada | $58,160 | 340 |
| West Virginia | $57,350 | 110 |
| Wisconsin | $56,440 | 70 |
| Oklahoma | $56,180 | 340 |
| Indiana | $55,660 | 420 |
| Kentucky | $54,200 | 200 |
| Arkansas | $52,120 | 110 |
| Texas | $50,930 | — |
| Georgia | $46,830 | 180 |
| Louisiana | $45,900 | 110 |
| Iowa | $41,930 | 100 |
| Michigan | $41,450 | 60 |
| Puerto Rico | $28,870 | 30 |
Highest-paying metropolitan areas
Top 20 by median annual wage.
| Metro area | Median annual | Employment |
|---|---|---|
| Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | $104,210 | 600 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | $94,240 | 60 |
| Urban Honolulu, HI | $77,460 | 70 |
| Joplin, MO-KS | $64,650 | 30 |
| St. Louis, MO-IL | $64,110 | 60 |
| Kansas City, MO-KS | $63,970 | 50 |
| Anniston-Oxford, AL | $62,050 | 40 |
| San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX | $61,730 | 50 |
| Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC | $59,840 | — |
| Boise City, ID | $58,660 | — |
| Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV | $58,160 | — |
| Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX | $50,910 | — |
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | $46,830 | 100 |
Machine access — free, no API key
Every figure shown here about Explosives Workers, Ordnance Handling Experts, and Blasters — wages and employment can also be queried live: FACTANKER runs an MCP server at https://factanker.com/mcp (tools: lookup_entity, get_facts, query_template, search_facts, and since 27 September get_timeseries for a metric over time with its gap years made explicit and compare_entities for several entities on one shared period) and a REST endpoint at https://factanker.com/api/get_facts. Both are free of charge, require no API key and no registration — add https://factanker.com/mcp as a connector in Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot. Every answer carries its source document and a citation reference. Setup: /quickstart.
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