Check us
Every figure on this site, and where it came from.
Wages, employment and growth projections come from federal and state government data. Each row below names the occupation code, the geography, the publication and the year, so you can open the source and confirm the number yourself.
Wages
Georgia wage data
All wage figures on this site are Georgia annual wages from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, May 2025 estimates. Entry level is the 10th percentile; top 10% is the 90th percentile.
| Role | Entry level | Median | Top 10% | Employed in Georgia |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Industrial machinery mechanicsMaintenance technician · SOC 49-9041 | Entry level$44,730 | Median$61,130 | Top 10%$83,890 | Employed in Georgia14,230 |
| Electrical & electronics engineering techniciansInstrumentation · SOC 17-3023 | Entry level$48,470 | Median$78,070 | Top 10%$108,890 | Employed in Georgia1,630 |
| Electro-mechanical & mechatronics techniciansSOC 17-3024 | Entry level$47,620 | Median$68,720 | Top 10%$119,080 | Employed in Georgia170 |
| MachinistsSOC 51-4041 | Entry level$37,060 | Median$52,610 | Top 10%$77,420 | Employed in Georgia6,090 |
| CNC tool operatorsSOC 51-9161 | Entry level- | Median$47,630 | Top 10%- | Employed in Georgia- |
| CNC tool programmersSOC 51-9162 | Entry level- | Median$61,360 | Top 10%- | Employed in Georgia- |
Metro Atlanta mean for industrial machinery mechanics is $65,780, from the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell metro estimates. Where this site shows a metro figure it is labeled as such.
Comparison occupations
What we compare technician pay against
When this site compares technician pay to another job, that job is retail sales: the most common alternative for someone weighing a technical pathway. Same source, same geography, same statistic.
| Role | Georgia median | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Retail salespersonsSOC 41-2031 | Georgia median$30,840 | SourceBLS OEWS |
| First-line supervisors of retail sales workersSOC 41-1011 | Georgia median$46,150 | SourceBLS OEWS |
Why the median, and not the average
Both statistics come from the same survey. We publish medians because the technician figures they are compared against are medians, and comparing a median to an average is not a like-for-like comparison. Retail earnings are also pulled upward by commission-heavy roles, so the average sits above what a typical person earns.
The Georgia average for retail salespersons is $33,980, if you would rather use it. The comparison still holds: the technician average is $63,930.
Growth
Georgia growth projections
Projections are produced by the Georgia Department of Labor and published through Projections Central, the clearinghouse for state-produced projections sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor. Average annual openings count both new jobs and replacement of workers who leave.
| Role | Projected growth | Average annual openings |
|---|---|---|
| Industrial machinery mechanicsSOC 49-9041 | Projected growth+20.2% | Average annual openings1,440 |
| Maintenance & repair workers, generalSOC 49-9071 | Projected growth+9.6% | Average annual openings5,140 |
| MachinistsSOC 51-4041 | Projected growth+9.7% | Average annual openings760 |
| Electro-mechanical & mechatronics techniciansSOC 17-3024 | Projected growth+6.0% | Average annual openings20 |
| Electrical & electronics engineering techniciansSOC 17-3023 | Projected growth+3.7% | Average annual openings200 |
One thing these numbers cannot do
Projections and wage estimates come from different programs with different methods and reference periods. The projections base year counts 13,100 industrial machinery mechanics in 2024; the wage survey estimates 14,230 in May 2025. Those two numbers are not a trend, and we do not present them as one.
Training and funding
Programs, tuition and aid
| Figure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Tuition-free programs of study in Georgia | Value18 | SourceTCSG |
| Technical colleges offering them | Value22 | SourceTCSG |
| Program covering industrial maintenance tuition | ValueHOPE Career Grant | SourceGAfutures |
Tuition-free means tuition, and only for programs on the HOPE Career Grant list at participating colleges. Fees, books and tools are not automatically covered, and eligibility rules apply. This site never describes a course as free unless the grant covers it.
Schools
Counselor caseloads
| Figure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Georgia students per school counselor, 2024-25 | Value386 : 1 | SourceASCA |
| National average, same year | Value372 : 1 | SourceASCA |
| Ratio ASCA recommends | Value250 : 1 | SourceASCA |
Georgia funds counselor positions at 450:1 under O.C.G.A. § 20-2-182; districts that do better than that are paying for it locally.
Employer page
Labor market figures on the employer page
| Figure | Source |
|---|---|
| Manufacturing: 580,000 job openings, 288,000 hires, 286,000 total separations | SourceBLS JOLTS, July 2026, preliminary, seasonally adjusted (tables 1 to 3) |
| Manufacturing quits rate 1.4%; average monthly separations rate 3.4% (2021) → 2.4% (2025) | SourceBLS JOLTS tables 4 and 20 |
| Nonexecutive time-to-fill: median 44 days, average 54, 75th percentile 73 (n=840) | SourceSHRM, Talent Access Report (2022) |
| 1,440 average annual openings, industrial machinery mechanics, Georgia | SourceGeorgia DOL 2024 to 2034 projections via Projections Central |
| 3,400+ talent pool · ages 7.8% / 14.3% / 63.7% · 5.2% veteran or military · ~3% monthly growth | SourceUnmudl Marketplace Learner Report, internal platform data pulled 08/27/2026 and 08/31/2026; growth is the May to July 2026 average |
| 232 live roles from 23 employers · 130 partners across 64 Georgia cities · 24 colleges | SourceJob search, college search and employer directory, platform data pulled 09/22/2026 |
Our arithmetic
Figures we calculated
A few numbers on this site are not published anywhere: we worked them out from the figures above. Here is the arithmetic, so you can check it.
| Figure as published | How we got it |
|---|---|
| Instrumentation pays about $17,000 more than maintenance | How we got it$78,070 − $61,130 = $16,940, rounded |
| Retail to technician is roughly double | How we got it$61,130 ÷ $30,840 = 1.98× |
| Entry technician pay beats the retail median by about $14,000 | How we got it$44,730 − $30,840 = $13,890, rounded |
Our rules
How we decide what to publish
Government sources, or nothing
Wages, employment and growth come from federal or state statistical agencies. We do not publish salary figures from job boards or self-reported aggregators, even when they are directionally right, because you cannot audit them and neither can we.
If we cannot source a claim, we take it down rather than soften it. Several figures have come off this site for exactly that reason, including a year-by-year earnings comparison built on aggregator estimates and a widely repeated retirement ratio we could not trace to anyone who measured it.
Every figure is labeled with its geography and year. When a source updates, we update every page that carries the number, not just the one you happened to land on.
Found something that looks wrong, or out of date? Tell us and we will check it and correct the site. That is a better outcome for everyone than a number nobody questions.