A sheet metal worker fabricates, assembles, installs, and repairs products made from thin metal sheets — HVAC ductwork, control boxes, drainpipes, and furnace casings are the examples O*NET uses to define the trade (SOC 47-2211).
In the HVAC and building trades, that means the duct systems that move air: measuring, cutting, joining, and sealing the metal, then hanging and connecting it.
This guide covers the work, the settings, the union route, and the pay.
What does a sheet metal worker do day to day?
The core of the job is the definition O*NET uses for the trade (SOC 47-2211.00): fabricate, assemble, install, and repair sheet metal products and equipment.
Its examples are the everyday outputs of the trade — ducts, control boxes, drainpipes, and furnace casings — and it counts sheet metal duct installers, who fit prefabricated duct made by someone else, inside the same occupation.
Written as a job description, those four verbs are the role.
On HVAC work, the product is duct systems: sheet metal arrives flat, gets measured, cut, formed, and joined into duct and fittings in a shop, then is hung, connected to equipment, sealed, and repaired in the building.
Hours skew standard.
In O*NET's survey, 72% of sheet metal workers report a typical week of 40 hours, and 28% report more than 40 — nearly identical to plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters (73% and 27%).
The work is physical, and the injury data shows it: BLS's Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses recorded 162.7 days-away-from-work cases per 10,000 full-time sheet metal workers in 2023-2024, and falls to a lower level alone accounted for 59.0 of those cases.
Who does the work: women were 4.9% of employed sheet metal workers in 2025, per BLS's household survey — a higher share than plumbers, pipefitters, and steamfitters (3.1%) or electricians (3.5%), though still small.
The trade skews slightly older than HVAC: the median age of employed sheet metal workers was 42.3 in 2025, just above the all-worker median of 42.1.
HVAC duct work vs architectural vs industrial sheet metal
“Sheet metal worker” is one occupation covering several settings.
The product examples in O*NET's definition map onto them: ducts and furnace casings are the HVAC products; drainpipes are the exterior, architectural products; control boxes are the equipment and industrial products.
BLS's industry counts show where the jobs actually sit.
Building Equipment Contractors — the mechanical contractors that install building HVAC — employ the most sheet metal workers, 53,690.
Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing employs 20,780: the industrial, factory side of the trade.
Foundation, Structure, and Building Exterior Contractors employ 16,060 — the roofing and exterior, or architectural, side.
One boundary worth drawing: sheet metal workers vs HVAC technicians.
Sheet metal workers make and install the metal — the duct, casings, and drainpipes.
HVACR mechanics install, maintain, and repair the heating, cooling, and refrigeration systems themselves, including electrical components and wiring, in BLS's description of that occupation.
The two trades share job sites, and ductwork is where they meet.
One thing to keep in mind when reading the numbers: BLS counts all of these settings under one occupation code, so the national pay figures below blend HVAC duct work with industrial and architectural shops — one reason the state and industry slices are worth checking.
Industry affects pay, but the eye-catching figures are small niches: the highest-paying industries for sheet metal workers by annual median are General Medical and Surgical Hospitals ($104,780), Local Government excluding Schools and Hospitals ($102,150), and Scientific Research and Development Services ($100,280) — these are small niches, not typical jobs.
Shop fabrication vs field installation
The trade runs in two halves of one process, and O*NET's definition names both: fabricate and assemble on one side, install and repair on the other.
The shop half turns flat sheet into duct, fittings, and casings; the field half hangs that duct in the building, sets the equipment it connects to, seals the joints, and repairs sections in place.
The occupation also includes sheet metal duct installers, who install prefabricated duct — O*NET puts them inside the same code (47-2211) — so a posting under either title can describe the same trade.
The industry counts show the split at scale: Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing employs 20,780 sheet metal workers, the shop side of the trade, while Building Equipment Contractors employ 53,690, the contractors who install building HVAC (both BLS, May 2025).
Union (SMART) vs non-union sheet metal work
The sheet metal union is SMART.
Its training arm, the International Training Institute (ITI), is jointly sponsored by SMART and SMACNA, which represents the contractors on the other side of the table, and it reports more than 14,000 registered sheet metal apprentices in the US and Canada.
The union's clearest footprint is training: SMART-affiliated registered apprenticeships run four or five years, combining on-the-job training with classes, at little to no tuition.
Union membership numbers frame the rest of the market: BLS measured 16.4% union membership among wage-and-salary construction and extraction workers in 2025, with 17.4% represented by unions — so most of the construction-trades workforce, sheet metal workers included, works outside a union contract.
BLS does not publish a rate for sheet metal workers specifically.
How to become a sheet metal worker
The main route in is a registered apprenticeship: four or five years of on-the-job training combined with classroom instruction, at little to no tuition — the shape SMART's ITI describes for its programs.
You learn on the job under journeymen during the day and take classes around the work week.
Licensing is the piece to check early, because it is set locally rather than one way nationally.
Massachusetts, for example, licenses apprentice, journeyperson, and master sheet metal workers through its Board of Examiners of Sheet Metal Workers.
Philadelphia requires a Sheet Metal Technician License for installing, maintaining, and servicing sheet metal used in HVAC systems, and applicants must complete a registered sheet metal apprenticeship with at least 8,000 hours of practical experience and 800 hours of related instruction.
Apprenticeship is the common thread through both examples — the union path and the licensing path both run through registered training hours — so finding a registered program near you is the single most useful first step.
Verify before you commit
Sheet metal worker pay
Median pay for sheet metal workers was $29.71 per hour, or $61,800 per year, in May 2025 — BLS's OEWS wage survey, released May 15, 2026.
The mean was $32.62 per hour ($67,850 per year), pulled above the median by the top of the wage range.
The gap between the two is the shape of the distribution: half of the trade earns less than the median, while the upper tail of experienced and well-placed workers pulls the mean above it.
Note what the survey measures — base pay.
OEWS wages exclude overtime pay, shift differentials, nonproduction bonuses, and benefits, so real annual earnings of workers who put in overtime can exceed these figures.
The range is wide.
The 10th percentile earned $18.57 per hour ($38,630 per year); the 90th earned $50.79 per hour ($105,650 per year).
In the industry this site covers — plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors, NAICS 238220, which groups HVAC and plumbing contractors together — the trade's median was $69,830 across 51,680 wage-and-salary jobs.
Location moves the number a lot — the full state-by-state and metro tables are on our sheet metal worker salary page.
Outlook: BLS projects sheet metal worker employment to grow 2.5% from 2025 to 2035, from 131.1k to 134.4k jobs including the self-employed — below the 3.5% all-occupation average, and well below the 10.9% projected for HVACR mechanics — with an average of 9,800 openings a year.
Payroll employment stood at 119,770 jobs in May 2025.
Find sheet metal jobs
Sheet metal jobs follow the construction map: the most sheet metal jobs are in Texas, California, Florida, New York, and Indiana, with New York-Newark-Jersey City, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands the largest metro areas.
The state-by-state job and wage tables are on the salary page above.
Browse current sheet metal worker jobs on HVACHires →
Career information, not legal advice. Licensing, apprenticeship, and pay rules change — confirm them with your state licensing board, or the city or county office where licensing is local, before you act on them.