Packer/Packager
Packers and packagers play a crucial role in the manufacturing and shipping industries by organizing and preparing goods for transport. These professionals ensure that products are properly packed to prevent damage and that shipments are accurately weighed and measured for pricing. Working in various sectors, including retail, heavy industry, and food service, packers typically operate in indoor environments like warehouses and assembly lines, emphasizing teamwork and collaboration.
This position is often considered unskilled labor, requiring no formal education, although on-the-job training is provided. Many packers are seasonal workers looking for extra income during busy periods, while others may include retirees or students seeking temporary employment. Typical daily responsibilities vary based on their specific roles within the packing process, which may involve retrieving items, packaging goods, confirming orders, and preparing shipping documentation.
Packers and packagers utilize a range of tools and equipment, including tape guns and shipping software, and they often work closely with colleagues to ensure accuracy and efficiency in shipping operations. Overall, this occupation offers opportunities for individuals from diverse backgrounds to engage in meaningful work within the logistics and manufacturing landscape.
Packer/Packager
Snapshot
Career Cluster(s): Manufacturing, Marketing, Sales & Service, Transportation, Distribution & Logistics
Interests: Working with your hands, working with a team
Earnings (Yearly Median): $36,770 per year $17.68 per hour
Employment & Outlook: 5% (Faster than average)
Entry-Level Education No formal education requirements
Related Work Experience None
On-the-job-Training Short-term on-the-job training
Overview
Sphere of Work. Packers and packages are employed by manufacturing and shipping facilities to organize and ready materials and manufactured goods for transport. Packers and packagers also ensure that goods are prepared properly to prevent damage during transport. Packaging professionals are additionally responsible for ensuring that each shipment is properly weighed and measured for pricing and safe shipping purposes. Packers and packagers work in a variety of industries, from retail, heavy industry, and shipping to food service and technical manufacturing.
Work Environment. Packers and packagers traditionally work in manufacturing, shipping, or other industrial settings. They work almost exclusively indoors. Packing and packaging lines are traditionally set up in an assembly line process, which requires each packer to ensure contents and packaging have been aptly packed and secured by any workers before them in the processes. As such, the position requires extensive collaboration. Packers also act as quality assurance officers at each packing station in order to ensure order correctness, protection, and proper shipping designation.
Occupation Interest. Packing is an unskilled labor position that attracts employees from all realms of academic and professional experience. Training is conducted on the job. Some packers undertake the position during the holiday season to earn extra income and to help retailers and manufacturers with overflow. Some are retirees who work part-time for supplemental income, while others are high school or college students who operate packing positions temporarily or as transitional employment.
A Day in the Life—Duties and Responsibilities. The responsibilities of a packer or packager are heavily reliant on which facet of the packing processes they are assigned to work on. Large retailers and manufacturing facilities rely on “pickers” to retrieve items from warehouse shelves using purchase orders. These employees utilize empty boxes and large carts to retrieve items according to orders prior to the inclusion of shipping materials.
Shipping materials are packaged with items to ensure that they will not be damaged during shipping. Such material ranges from Styrofoam bubbles to inflated air pads, which are inserted into boxes carefully by other packagers. The next phase of the process involves order confirmation and shipping documentation. Packers at this end of the packaging spectrum may review the contents of shipments for accuracy and close packages utilizing heavy-grade tape guns and other industrial-grade shipping tools. Packing clerks then utilize industrial scales and shipping software to add appropriate postage and shipping addresses to packages. Packages are then stacked on shipping palettes and are arranged by delivery times and destination.
Wrappers (920.587-018). Wrappers wrap materials and products before packaging them to protect them after they have been weighed and counted.
Machine Packagers (920.685-078). Machine packagers tend to the machines that perform one or more packaging functions, such as filling, marking, labeling, banding, tying, packing, or wrapping containers. They feed the product into the packaging machine and unload the packaged products.
Work Environment
Immediate Physical Environment. Packers and packagers work primarily in warehouse and assembly line settings.
Human Environment. Packers and packagers must interact with fellow staff members on a routine basis to ensure the accuracy of orders and the protection of goods during shipping.
Technological Environment. Packers and packagers utilize a variety of hand tools, such as palette hand trucks, staple guns, tape guns, and packing equipment machines. The use of shipping software and industrial-grade weights and measures may also be required.
Education, Training, and Advancement
High School/Secondary. A high school diploma or general education diploma is not a strict prerequisite for employment as a packer or packager. High school students can prepare for a career in the shipping industry with coursework in algebra, geometry, physics, and computer science. Drafting and industrial arts classes can serve as important precursors for future work in industrial and commercial settings.
Postsecondary. Postsecondary education is not a prerequisite for employment as a packer or packager.
Related Occupations
− Freight, Stock & Material Mover
Bibliography
“Hand Laborers and Material Movers.” Occupational Outlook Handbook. Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor, 17 Apr. 2024, www.bls.gov/ooh/transportation-and-material-moving/hand-laborers-and-material-movers.htm. Accessed 23 Aug. 2024.
“Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2023: 53-7064 Packers and Packagers, Hand.” Occupational Employment Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor, 3 Apr. 2024, www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes537064.htm. Accessed 23 Aug. 2024.