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Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Workers
Operate or tend washing or dry-cleaning machines to wash or dry-clean industrial or household articles, such as cloth garments, suede, leather, furs, blankets, draperies, linens, rugs, and carpets. Includes spotters and dyers of these articles.
- Median pay
- $33,800
- per year
- 10-year outlook
- +5.4%
- Growing
- Typical entry
- No formal educational credential
Key skills
- Active Listening
- Monitoring
- Speaking
- Social Perceptiveness
- Operations Monitoring
- Time Management
- Reading Comprehension
- Critical Thinking
What they do
- Load articles into washers or dry-cleaning machines, or direct other workers to perform loading.
- Start washers, dry cleaners, driers, or extractors, and turn valves or levers to regulate machine processes and the volume of soap, detergent, water, bleach, starch, and other additives.
- Operate extractors and driers, or direct their operation.
- Remove items from washers or dry-cleaning machines, or direct other workers to do so.
- Sort and count articles removed from dryers, and fold, wrap, or hang them.
- Clean machine filters, and lubricate equipment.
- Examine and sort into lots articles to be cleaned, according to color, fabric, dirt content, and cleaning technique required.
- Receive and mark articles for laundry or dry cleaning with identifying code numbers or names, using hand or machine markers.
- Apply bleaching powders to spots and spray them with steam to remove stains from fabrics that do not respond to other cleaning solvents.
- Determine spotting procedures and proper solvents, based on fabric and stain types.
Majors that lead here
No mapped majors yet.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS, Employment Projections) and O*NET, used under CC BY 4.0.