Concrete Finishing

Types of Degrees Concrete Finishing Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many concrete finishing/concrete finisher graduations there were in 2020-2021 for each degree level.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Undergraduate Certificate	51
Associate Degree	1

What Concrete Finishing Majors Need to Know

O*NET surveyed people in occupations related to concrete finishing/concrete finisher and asked them what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. The responses were rated on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being most important.

Knowledge Areas for Concrete Finishing/Concrete Finisher Majors

According to O*NET survey takers, a major in concrete finishing/concrete finisher should prepare you for careers in which you will need to be knowledgeable in the following areas:

• 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

When studying concrete finishing/concrete finisher, you’ll learn many skills that will help you be successful in a wide range of jobs - even those that do not require a degree in the field. The following is a list of some of the most common skills needed for careers associated with this major:

• 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?

People with a concrete finishing/concrete finisher degree often go into the following careers:

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?

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	1
International Students	0
Other Races/Ethnicities	0

How Much Do Concrete Finishing Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

Concrete Finishing/Concrete Finisher majors often go into careers where salaries can range from $47,350 to $70,540 (25th to 75th percentile). 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.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to concrete finishing/concrete finisher have obtained the following education levels.

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

In the 2020-2021 academic year, 8 schools offered some type of concrete finishing/concrete finisher program. 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)	4	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	0	0
Associate’s Degree	2	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	1,289
Building Construction Technology	1,175
Building/Construction Site Management/Manager	910
Other Building/Construction Finishing, Management, & Inspection	616
Building/Home/Construction Inspection/Inspector	239
Insulator	62
Drywall Installation/Drywaller	52
Painting/Painter & Wall Coverer	40
Glazier	34
Carpet, Floor, & Tile Worker	30
Roofer	12

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.