Career Trends: Painters, Construction and Maintenance

Painters apply paint, stain, and coatings to walls and ceilings, buildings, bridges, and other structures.

Painting requires a lot of climbing, bending, kneeling, and reaching. Most industrial painters work outside, almost always in dry, warm weather. Those who paint bridges or buildings may be exposed to extreme heights and uncomfortable positions.

Most painters learn their trade on the job. No formal education is typically required to enter the occupation.

Employment of painters is projected to grow 7 percent from 2014 to 2024, about as fast as the average for all occupations. Overall job prospects should be good, and opportunities for industrial painters and coaters are expected to be excellent, especially in the Gulf Coast region.

This occupation supported 316,200 jobs in 2012 and 360,500 jobs in 2014, reflecting an increase of 14.0%. In 2012, this occupation was projected to increase by 19.8% in 2022 to 378,800 jobs. As of 2014, to keep pace with prediction, the expected number of jobs was 328,700, compared with an observed value of 360,500, 9.7% higher than expected. This indicates current employment trends are much better than the 2012 trend within this occupation. In 2014, this occupation was projected to increase by 8.4% in 2024 to 387,100 jobs. Linear extrapolation of the 2012 projection for 2022 results in an expected number of 391,300 jobs for 2024, 1.1% higher than the 2014 projection for 2024. This indicates expectations for future employment trends are about on track with the 2012 trend within this occupation.