Food Production Worker
Career Area: Hospitality, Food, and Tourism
Occupation Group: Food and Beverage Preparation
Salary
Percentile wages tell how much a certain percentage of an overall population in a geographic area or within a given industry or field makes. The percentile wage estimate is the value of a wage below which a certain percent of workers fall.
An example would be the 25th percentile, 25 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 75 percent earn more than the estimated wage value. At the 75th percentile, 75 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 25 percent earn more than the estimated wage value.
A typical Food Production Worker earns the following wages (national and state):
State
The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $27,303
National
The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $28,742
What Does a Professional in this Career Do?
Operates machinery used to prepare and cook food, and produces packaged food to sale to retail or wholesale customers.
Employment Trends
The job demand and job growth statistics shown here were derived from job posts over the past year. Expected job growth projections are extrapolated from year-over-year job post listing history.
Job demand and job growth is expected at the following rates:
| Location | Growth | |
|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | 776 | +4.8% |
| Nationwide | 16322 | +2% |
Skills
A professional in this position typically utilizes the following skills in the course of everyday work in this exciting and challenging field:
Baseline Skills
The following are baseline skills every Food Production Worker is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:
- Physical Abilities: Physical Abilities, which refers to the ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with the body, arms, and/or legs. These abilities often require strength, endurance, flexibility, balance and coordination.
- Teamwork / Collaboration: Experience working in collaborative efforts with a team to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in the most effective and efficient way.
- Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
- Organizational Skills: Experience with a systematic process of structuring, integrating, co-ordinating task goals, and activities to resources in order to attain objectives.
- Detail-Oriented: A detail oriented person is someone who pays attention to the details and can make a conscious effort to understand causes instead of just the effects, and that does this in a second nature type of way.
Specialized Skills
These skills are specific to working in this career:
- Cleaning: Cleaning is the process of removing unwanted substances, such as dirt, infectious agents, and other impurities, from an object or environment.
- Packaging: Packaging is the technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use.
- Food Safety: Food safety is a scientific discipline describing handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent foodborne illness.
- Customer Service: Working experience with the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.
- Basic Mathematics: Mathematics is the study of topics such as quantity (numbers), structure, space, and change.
Distinguishing Skills
Any Food Production Worker that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:
- Food Preparation: Food preparation preparing food for eating, generally requires selection, measurement and combination of ingredients in an ordered procedure so as to achieve desired results.
Experience
This position typically requires the following level of experience. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.
| Experience Required | % |
| 0 to 2 years | 90% |
| 3 to 5 years | 8% |
| 6 to 8 years | 1% |
Many of the programs offered through NC State are designed for working professionals who need additional credentials to enhance existing work experience.
Students who do not have the expected level of experience may wish to look into internship and employment opportunities.
Common Job Titles
It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:
- Opener/Closer
- Production
- Doughnut Maker
- Runner
- Doughnut Decorator
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