roustabout
Roustabouts maintain and repair oil field equipment and machinery using hand and power tools. They do general labor, such as cleaning, digging trenches, scraping and painting rig components.
roustabout roustabouts maintain and repair oil field equipment and machinery using hand and power tools. They do general labor, such as cleaning, digging trenches, scraping and painting rig components. The role shows moderate AI exposure (0.50 on a 0-1 scale) — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. The most in-demand skills for the role include mechanics, inspect pipelines, bolt engine parts, maintain oil field machinery, perform drainage work.
Pay in the UK
UK: median £38,301 a year for Mining and quarry workers and related operatives (ONS ASHE 2025, full-time)
UK jobs are grouped differently; this is the closest UK occupation group (ONS SOC 2020 8132). ONS rates this estimate reasonably precise. 2025 provisional figures; ONS revises them a year later. Source: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Open Government Licence)
Pay in India (occupation group)
Average monthly earnings of salaried employees in the occupation group “Plant and machine operators and assemblers” in India, from the Government of India's Periodic Labour Force Survey (January–December 2025). It covers everyone in this group, not only roustabout, and it is not US pay converted to rupees.
Source: MoSPI (Government of India), Periodic Labour Force Survey Annual Report 2025, Table 51 — average wage/salary earnings of regular wage/salaried employees, NCO-2015 division 8. Official India data gives one average per occupation group: there are no official India figures for single careers, experience levels or cities. Read the report
Top skills
Knowledge you'll build
- Mechanical
- Customer and Personal Service
- Production and Processing
- Transportation
- Mathematics
- English Language
- Physics
- Education and Training
What you'd actually do
- Unscrew or tighten pipes, casing, tubing, and pump rods, using hand and power wrenches and tongs.
- Dismantle and repair oil field machinery, boilers, and steam engine parts, using hand tools and power tools.
- Guide cranes to move loads about decks.
- Walk flow lines to locate leaks, using electronic detectors and by making visual inspections, and repair the leaks.
- Lay gas and oil pipelines.
- Bolt together pump and engine parts.
Tools & technology you'd use
Frequently asked questions
What does roustabout do?
Roustabouts maintain and repair oil field equipment and machinery using hand and power tools. They do general labor, such as cleaning, digging trenches, scraping and painting rig components.
What skills does roustabout need?
The most in-demand skills for this role include mechanics, inspect pipelines, bolt engine parts, maintain oil field machinery, perform drainage work, supply rigging equipment. These are the skills O*NET identifies as most important for competent performance.
Will AI replace roustabout?
Our AI-durability model gives roustabout a score of 0.50 on a 0-1 scale (higher = more exposure). That places it at moderate AI exposure — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. Learning to work with AI tools rather than against them is the path forward.