Highest-paying construction jobs in Houma

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February 20, 2022
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Highest-paying construction jobs in Houma

The term "recession-proof" has taken on a new and important meaning in the wake of the Great Recession of 2008, a meaning that has been renewed during the pandemic. One recession-proof industry has proven to be construction. Residential and commercial real estate, roads, bridges, power and energy, hotels—each of these sectors has weathered economic storms and proven to be dependable ways for a person to support a family.

The American Institutes of Architects' Consensus Construction Forecast predicts that nonresidential construction will grow 4.6%, while the overall commercial construction market will see a 5.4% increase. This is against market expectations of global construction gains of 3.7%, meaning the U.S. market is expected to be ahead of the curve. Moreover, road and highway construction is expected to reach $108 billion annually by 2024.

Aside from ongoing supply chain woes that have caused delays in materials delivery, one source of concern in construction is workforce shortages. Analysis from Deloitte says that labor shortages are the result of a lack of qualified candidates and a skills gap between generations in an industry growing more technologically savvy by the year.

But this does not mean there are no jobs out there—to the contrary, there are a great number of construction jobs out there, and many of them are high-paying and offer career opportunities. To that end, Stacker compiled a list of the highest paying jobs in construction in Houma using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Jobs are ranked based on annual pay as of May 2020. Job descriptions are from O*NET.

#20. Helpers--pipelayers, plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters

Houma-Thibodaux, LA
- Annual mean salary: $31,650
- #97 highest pay among all metros
- Employment: 60

National
- Annual mean salary: $34,990
- Employment: 55,740
- Entry level education requirements: High school diploma or equivalent
- Metros with highest average pay:
--- Vallejo-Fairfield, CA ($62,520)
--- Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI ($51,590)
--- Anchorage, AK ($45,980)
- Job description: Help plumbers, pipefitters, steamfitters, or pipelayers by performing duties requiring less skill. Duties include using, supplying, or holding materials or tools, and cleaning work area and equipment.

#19. Helpers--painters, paperhangers, plasterers, and stucco masons

Houma-Thibodaux, LA
- Annual mean salary: $32,380
- #23 highest pay among all metros
- Employment: 100

National
- Annual mean salary: $33,520
- Employment: 9,500
- Entry level education requirements: No formal educational credential
- Metros with highest average pay:
--- Sacramento--Roseville--Arden-Arcade, CA ($50,140)
--- Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, MA-NH ($47,830)
--- Providence-Warwick, RI-MA ($46,330)
- Job description: Help painters, paperhangers, plasterers, or stucco masons by performing duties requiring less skill. Duties include using, supplying, or holding materials or tools, and cleaning work area and equipment.

#18. Construction laborers

Houma-Thibodaux, LA
- Annual mean salary: $33,240
- #308 highest pay among all metros
- Employment: 560

National
- Annual mean salary: $43,000
- Employment: 971,330
- Entry level education requirements: No formal educational credential
- Metros with highest average pay:
--- Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI ($66,670)
--- Kankakee, IL ($65,730)
--- Urban Honolulu, HI ($63,860)
- Job description: Perform tasks involving physical labor at construction sites. May operate hand and power tools of all types: air hammers, earth tampers, cement mixers, small mechanical hoists, surveying and measuring equipment, and a variety of other equipment and instruments. May clean and prepare sites, dig trenches, set braces to support the sides of excavations, erect scaffolding, and clean up rubble, debris, and other waste materials. May assist other craft workers.

#17. Helpers--electricians

Houma-Thibodaux, LA
- Annual mean salary: $33,790
- #85 highest pay among all metros
- Employment: 80

National
- Annual mean salary: $35,440
- Employment: 73,920
- Entry level education requirements: High school diploma or equivalent
- Metros with highest average pay:
--- Cedar Rapids, IA ($55,070)
--- New Orleans-Metairie, LA ($53,920)
--- Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA ($52,310)
- Job description: Help electricians by performing duties requiring less skill. Duties include using, supplying, or holding materials or tools, and cleaning work area and equipment.

#16. Helpers--carpenters

Houma-Thibodaux, LA
- Annual mean salary: $33,880
- #62 highest pay among all metros
- Employment: 40

National
- Annual mean salary: $35,360
- Employment: 30,900
- Entry level education requirements: No formal educational credential
- Metros with highest average pay:
--- Salem, OR ($64,070)
--- New Bedford, MA ($45,720)
--- San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA ($44,900)
- Job description: Help carpenters by performing duties requiring less skill. Duties include using, supplying, or holding materials or tools, and cleaning work area and equipment.

#15. Hazardous materials removal workers

Houma-Thibodaux, LA
- Annual mean salary: $37,330
- #120 highest pay among all metros
- Employment: data not available

National
- Annual mean salary: $49,170
- Employment: 44,010
- Entry level education requirements: High school diploma or equivalent
- Metros with highest average pay:
--- Knoxville, TN ($79,260)
--- Salinas, CA ($72,170)
--- Kennewick-Richland, WA ($70,300)
- Job description: Identify, remove, pack, transport, or dispose of hazardous materials, including asbestos, lead-based paint, waste oil, fuel, transmission fluid, radioactive materials, or contaminated soil. Specialized training and certification in hazardous materials handling or a confined entry permit are generally required. May operate earth-moving equipment or trucks.

#14. Painters, construction and maintenance

Houma-Thibodaux, LA
- Annual mean salary: $37,480
- #245 highest pay among all metros
- Employment: 290

National
- Annual mean salary: $46,460
- Employment: 217,880
- Entry level education requirements: No formal educational credential
- Metros with highest average pay:
--- San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA ($69,360)
--- Salinas, CA ($64,630)
--- Vallejo-Fairfield, CA ($63,070)
- Job description: Paint walls, equipment, buildings, bridges, and other structural surfaces, using brushes, rollers, and spray guns. May remove old paint to prepare surface prior to painting. May mix colors or oils to obtain desired color or consistency.

#13. Carpenters

Houma-Thibodaux, LA
- Annual mean salary: $40,750
- #302 highest pay among all metros
- Employment: 570

National
- Annual mean salary: $54,200
- Employment: 699,300
- Entry level education requirements: High school diploma or equivalent
- Metros with highest average pay:
--- Urban Honolulu, HI ($82,950)
--- Vallejo-Fairfield, CA ($82,300)
--- Hanford-Corcoran, CA ($79,870)
- Job description: Construct, erect, install, or repair structures and fixtures made of wood and comparable materials, such as concrete forms; building frameworks, including partitions, joists, studding, and rafters; and wood stairways, window and door frames, and hardwood floors. May also install cabinets, siding, drywall, and batt or roll insulation. Includes brattice builders who build doors or brattices (ventilation walls or partitions) in underground passageways.

#12. Sheet metal workers

Houma-Thibodaux, LA
- Annual mean salary: $41,100
- #226 highest pay among all metros
- Employment: data not available

National
- Annual mean salary: $55,320
- Employment: 128,220
- Entry level education requirements: High school diploma or equivalent
- Metros with highest average pay:
--- Fairbanks, AK ($132,900)
--- Kankakee, IL ($91,140)
--- Olympia-Tumwater, WA ($87,030)
- Job description: Fabricate, assemble, install, and repair sheet metal products and equipment, such as ducts, control boxes, drainpipes, and furnace casings. Work may involve any of the following: setting up and operating fabricating machines to cut, bend, and straighten sheet metal; shaping metal over anvils, blocks, or forms using hammer; operating soldering and welding equipment to join sheet metal parts; or inspecting, assembling, and smoothing seams and joints of burred surfaces. Includes sheet metal duct installers who install prefabricated sheet metal ducts used for heating, air conditioning, or other purposes.

#11. Excavating and loading machine and dragline operators, surface mining

Houma-Thibodaux, LA
- Annual mean salary: $43,200
- #87 highest pay among all metros
- Employment: 40

National
- Annual mean salary: $48,500
- Employment: 40,240
- Entry level education requirements: High school diploma or equivalent
- Metros with highest average pay:
--- San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA ($106,100)
--- Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV ($84,840)
--- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA ($78,360)
- Job description: Operate or tend machinery at surface mining site, equipped with scoops, shovels, or buckets to excavate and load loose materials.

#10. Operating engineers and other construction equipment operators

Houma-Thibodaux, LA
- Annual mean salary: $43,710
- #264 highest pay among all metros
- Employment: 220

National
- Annual mean salary: $55,280
- Employment: 402,870
- Entry level education requirements: High school diploma or equivalent
- Metros with highest average pay:
--- New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA ($96,440)
--- Barnstable Town, MA ($93,620)
--- Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA ($93,320)
- Job description: Operate one or several types of power construction equipment, such as motor graders, bulldozers, scrapers, compressors, pumps, derricks, shovels, tractors, or front-end loaders to excavate, move, and grade earth, erect structures, or pour concrete or other hard surface pavement. May repair and maintain equipment in addition to other duties.

#9. Plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters

Houma-Thibodaux, LA
- Annual mean salary: $47,170
- #282 highest pay among all metros
- Employment: 490

National
- Annual mean salary: $61,100
- Employment: 417,440
- Entry level education requirements: High school diploma or equivalent
- Metros with highest average pay:
--- San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA ($106,100)
--- Fairbanks, AK ($94,280)
--- Kankakee, IL ($93,420)
- Job description: Assemble, install, alter, and repair pipelines or pipe systems that carry water, steam, air, or other liquids or gases. May install heating and cooling equipment and mechanical control systems. Includes sprinkler fitters.

#8. Structural iron and steel workers

Houma-Thibodaux, LA
- Annual mean salary: $47,520
- #116 highest pay among all metros
- Employment: 160

National
- Annual mean salary: $58,650
- Employment: 71,490
- Entry level education requirements: High school diploma or equivalent
- Metros with highest average pay:
--- Trenton, NJ ($91,360)
--- Rockford, IL ($90,160)
--- Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA ($89,740)
- Job description: Raise, place, and unite iron or steel girders, columns, and other structural members to form completed structures or structural frameworks. May erect metal storage tanks and assemble prefabricated metal buildings.

#7. Roustabouts, oil and gas

Houma-Thibodaux, LA
- Annual mean salary: $47,550
- #7 highest pay among all metros
- Employment: 190

National
- Annual mean salary: $42,160
- Employment: 44,710
- Entry level education requirements: No formal educational credential
- Metros with highest average pay:
--- Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula, MS ($57,330)
--- Anchorage, AK ($52,180)
--- Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO ($52,030)
- Job description: Assemble or repair oil field equipment using hand and power tools. Perform other tasks as needed.

#6. Service unit operators, oil and gas

Houma-Thibodaux, LA
- Annual mean salary: $48,690
- #26 highest pay among all metros
- Employment: 270

National
- Annual mean salary: $52,510
- Employment: 43,840
- Entry level education requirements: No formal educational credential
- Metros with highest average pay:
--- Fresno, CA ($79,790)
--- Wheeling, WV-OH ($71,350)
--- Tyler, TX ($64,330)
- Job description: Operate equipment to increase oil flow from producing wells or to remove stuck pipe, casing, tools, or other obstructions from drilling wells. Includes fishing-tool technicians.

#5. Derrick operators, oil and gas

Houma-Thibodaux, LA
- Annual mean salary: $51,220
- #9 highest pay among all metros
- Employment: data not available

National
- Annual mean salary: $50,280
- Employment: 9,350
- Entry level education requirements: No formal educational credential
- Metros with highest average pay:
--- Anchorage, AK ($69,420)
--- New Orleans-Metairie, LA ($62,250)
--- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA ($60,190)
- Job description: Rig derrick equipment and operate pumps to circulate mud or fluid through drill hole.

#4. Rotary drill operators, oil and gas

Houma-Thibodaux, LA
- Annual mean salary: $51,610
- #22 highest pay among all metros
- Employment: 130

National
- Annual mean salary: $58,940
- Employment: 15,650
- Entry level education requirements: No formal educational credential
- Metros with highest average pay:
--- Anchorage, AK ($94,610)
--- Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO ($87,290)
--- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA ($81,210)
- Job description: Set up or operate a variety of drills to remove underground oil and gas, or remove core samples for testing during oil and gas exploration.

#3. Electricians

Houma-Thibodaux, LA
- Annual mean salary: $55,910
- #188 highest pay among all metros
- Employment: 430

National
- Annual mean salary: $61,550
- Employment: 656,510
- Entry level education requirements: High school diploma or equivalent
- Metros with highest average pay:
--- San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA ($106,680)
--- Trenton, NJ ($90,210)
--- Kankakee, IL ($88,530)
- Job description: Install, maintain, and repair electrical wiring, equipment, and fixtures. Ensure that work is in accordance with relevant codes. May install or service street lights, intercom systems, or electrical control systems.

#2. Construction and building inspectors

Houma-Thibodaux, LA
- Annual mean salary: $57,490
- #178 highest pay among all metros
- Employment: data not available

National
- Annual mean salary: $66,470
- Employment: 113,770
- Entry level education requirements: High school diploma or equivalent
- Metros with highest average pay:
--- San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA ($103,820)
--- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA ($102,920)
--- Salinas, CA ($98,360)
- Job description: Inspect structures using engineering skills to determine structural soundness and compliance with specifications, building codes, and other regulations. Inspections may be general in nature or may be limited to a specific area, such as electrical systems or plumbing.

#1. First-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers

Houma-Thibodaux, LA
- Annual mean salary: $65,240
- #232 highest pay among all metros
- Employment: 590

National
- Annual mean salary: $72,990
- Employment: 614,080
- Entry level education requirements: High school diploma or equivalent
- Metros with highest average pay:
--- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA ($107,870)
--- Mount Vernon-Anacortes, WA ($103,930)
--- Santa Rosa, CA ($100,620)
- Job description: Directly supervise and coordinate activities of construction or extraction workers.

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