Blasting

What Blasting Majors Need to Know

O*NET surveyed people in occupations related to blasting/blaster 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 Blasting/Blaster Majors

Blasting/Blaster majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

• 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.
• 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.
• Production and Processing - Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
• Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
• 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 Blasting/Blaster Majors

blasting/blaster majors are found most commonly in careers in which the following skills are important:

• 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.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
• Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.

Abilities for Blasting/Blaster Majors

A major in blasting/blaster will prepare for your careers in which the following abilities are important:

• 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.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• 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 Blasting Major?

People with a blasting/blaster degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Explosives Workers, Ordnance Handling Experts, and Blasters	7.9%	$49,860
First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers	12.6%	$65,230

How Much Do Blasting Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

Blasting/Blaster majors often go into careers where salaries can range from $52,780 to $70,540 (25th to 75th percentile). This range includes all degree levels, so the salary for a person with just a bachelor’s degree may be a little less and the one for a person with an advanced degree may be a little more.

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 Blasting

Some degrees associated with blasting/blaster 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 blasting/blaster have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	5.5%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	48.0%
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)	21.1%
Some College Courses	23.6%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	2.1%

Online Blasting Programs

In 2019-2020, 1 schools offered a blasting/blaster program of some type. 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)	1	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	0	0
Associate’s Degree	1	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 Blasting Worth It?

The median salary for a blasting/blaster grad is $52,780 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

This is 32% more than the average salary for an individual holding a high school degree. This adds up to a gain of about $257,600 after 20 years!

Trades Related to Blasting

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to blasting/blaster.

Major	Number of Grads
Plumbing Technology/Plumber	1,708
Pipefitting/Pipefitter & Sprinkler Fitter	594
Other Plumbing & Related Water Supply Services	117
Well Drilling/Driller	10

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
• Image Credit: By Tomwsulcer under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.