Concrete Finishing

Types of Degrees Concrete Finishing Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many concrete finishing/concrete finisher graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Undergraduate Certificate	76
Associate Degree	4
Basic Certificate	4

What Concrete Finishing Majors Need to Know

People with careers related to concrete finishing/concrete finisher were asked what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. They weighted these areas on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest.

Knowledge Areas for Concrete Finishing/Concrete Finisher Majors

Concrete Finishing/Concrete Finisher majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

• Building and Construction - Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.

Skills for Concrete Finishing/Concrete Finisher Majors

concrete finishing/concrete finisher majors are found most commonly in careers in which the following skills are important:

• Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others’ actions.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Time Management - Managing one’s own time and the time of others.

Abilities for Concrete Finishing/Concrete Finisher Majors

As a concrete finishing/concrete finisher major, you will find yourself needing the following abilities:

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).

What Can You Do With a Concrete Finishing Major?

Below is a list of occupations associated with concrete finishing/concrete finisher:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Cement Masons and Concrete Finishers	12.6%	$43,000
First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers	12.6%	$65,230
Solar Energy Installation Managers	12.6%	$65,230

Who Is Getting an Associate’s Degree in Concrete Finishing?

Roughly 50% of the graduates are women, and 50% are men.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of concrete finishing/concrete finisher majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	0
Black or African American	0
Hispanic or Latino	0
White	4
International Students	0
Other Races/Ethnicities	0

How Much Do Concrete Finishing Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

Average salaries range from $47,350 to $70,540 (25th to 75th percentile) for careers related to concrete finishing/concrete finisher. This range includes all degree levels, so you may expect those with a more advanced degree to make more while those with less advanced degrees will typically make less.

To put that into context, according to BLS data from the first quarter of 2020, the typical high school graduate makes between $30,000 and $57,900 a year (25th through 75th percentile). The average person with a bachelor’s degree (any field) makes between $45,600 and $99,000. Advanced degree holders make the most with salaries between $55,600 and $125,400.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Concrete Finishing

Some degrees associated with concrete finishing/concrete finisher may require an advanced degree, while others may not even require a bachelor’s in the field. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

Find out what the typical degree level is for concrete finishing/concrete finisher careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	19.8%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	30.6%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	22.0%
Some College Courses	19.7%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	4.3%
Bachelor’s Degree	1.5%
Master’s Degree	1.1%

Online Concrete Finishing Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	3	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	0	0
Associate’s Degree	3	0
Bachelor’s Degree	0	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	0	0
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Is a Degree in Concrete Finishing Worth It?

The median salary for a concrete finishing/concrete finisher grad is $47,350 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

This is 19% more than the average salary for an individual holding a high school degree. This adds up to a gain of about $149,000 after 20 years!

Trades Related to Concrete Finishing

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to concrete finishing/concrete finisher.

Major	Number of Grads
Building/Property Maintenance	1,549
Building Construction Technology	1,448
Building/Construction Site Management/Manager	1,116
Other Building/Construction Finishing, Management, & Inspection	529
Building/Home/Construction Inspection/Inspector	261
Drywall Installation/Drywaller	92
Insulator	61
Painting/Painter & Wall Coverer	58
Glazier	33
Carpet, Floor, & Tile Worker	21
Roofer	17
Metal Building Assembly/Assembler	0

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020

More about our data sources and methodologies.