Hiring guideRead at source, 29 September 2026

How to Recruit Boilermakers: A Small Trade, Named Travel, and a Weld Test Before the Offer

To recruit boilermakers, accept that the pool is small (about 10,200 jobs nationally in 2025, per BLS) and mostly employed. Reach them through union halls and apprenticeship programs, referrals from your current crew, and Facebook and Instagram job ads aimed at the regions you work in. Lead the ad with pay, per diem and the travel percentage, screen for journeyman or apprentice status and the weld tests they hold, and schedule the weld test fast, because outage work does not wait.

Who you are actually hiring

Boilermakers build, install and repair boilers, pressure vessels, tanks and other large containers that hold liquids and gases, in power plants, refineries, chemical plants, shipyards and fabrication shops. BLS counted 10,200 boilermaker jobs in 2025 and projects 10,100 in 2035, a change of minus 1.8 percent, with about 700 openings a year (BLS Employment Projections 2025-35). The median annual wage was $76,410 in May 2025. BLS lists a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical entry education and apprenticeship as the typical training.

A trade that small, with openings that low, means you are almost never recruiting someone who is looking. You are recruiting a journeyman who is on another job, between outages, or tired of the travel on their current one. That changes the whole playbook: the ad has to give them a reason to switch, and the application has to be short enough to finish on a phone at the end of a shift.

Where to find boilermakers

• Union halls and apprenticeship programs. The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers describes its apprenticeship as a four-year, earn-while-you-learn program (boilermakers.org). If you are a signatory contractor, the hall is your first call. If you are not, apprenticeship programs are still where the next generation trains.
• Your own crew. Boilermakers work outages alongside each other for years. A referral bonus paid after the first outage is often the fastest route to a qualified journeyman.
• Adjacent trades. Pipe welders, structural welders, millwrights and riggers from industrial work already have the site credentials and some of the skills. Our guide to welder recruiting covers that pool.
• Military and shipyard veterans. Hull technicians and shipyard workers often have the fabrication and welding background.
• Social job ads. Facebook and Instagram reach employed boilermakers in your region who never open a job board. Meta's Employment special ad category requires a location radius of at least 15 miles and bars age, gender and ZIP code targeting, which suits a trade that travels anyway (see our Meta special ad category explainer).

If you want to build your own pipeline rather than compete for journeymen, read our guide to apprenticeship and trade school recruiting.

What to pay boilermakers

The BLS median annual wage for boilermakers was $76,410 in May 2025. For outage and field work, the base rate is only half the comparison. A journeyman weighs the hourly rate, guaranteed hours and overtime, per diem, whether lodging is booked or reimbursed, and whether travel days are paid. Put every one of those in the ad as a number. Our boilermaker job description has the wage section and a template you can adapt for field, plant and shop roles.

How to write the boilermaker job ad

The first two lines should answer three questions: how much, where and how long. A boilermaker on a current job will not click to find out.

Name your real region, dates and rotation. In the body, state the type of work (power boilers, refinery vessels, tanks, marine), the weld processes and positions you test to, the site credentials required, and the schedule pattern. If you will take a senior apprentice, say so: it widens a very narrow pool.

Screening questions for a mobile application

Three or four questions are enough. Each extra one costs applicants, and the ones you lose are the employed journeymen you wanted.

• Are you a journeyman boilermaker or an apprentice? If an apprentice, which year?
• Which weld processes and positions have you tested to? (Multiple choice.)
• Do you hold a current TWIC card? (Ask only if the job site requires one. TSA issues the TWIC to workers who need access to secure areas of maritime facilities and vessels, and it is valid for five years, per TSA.)
• When can you start, and are you open to travel?

Do not use a resume upload or a site safety orientation as a knockout. Those belong after the phone call.

Speed and follow-up

Outage crews are staffed weeks out, and a qualified journeyman usually has more than one offer. Call or text within the hour, book the weld test for the same week, and give a clear yes or no after it. Boostpoint Connect, an add-on to Boostpoint Attract, texts every applicant the moment they apply and runs follow-up sequences from a shared inbox, so nobody waits until Monday to hear back.

What a boilermaker applicant costs on social

In Boostpoint's 2026 benchmark, the Skilled trades family ran a median of $14.14 per applicant, with the middle half of campaigns between $7.58 and $21.49, a blended $10.74, and a 15 percent apply rate (Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark). That is a family figure for trades roles, not a boilermaker-specific number, and cost per applicant is not cost per hire. Across all 891 campaigns, those where fewer than 5 percent of clickers finished the form ran $53.77 per applicant, which is why a short form matters most for credentialed trades.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025-35 and May 2025 median annual wage (boilermakers); International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, apprenticeship page; Transportation Security Administration, TWIC program page; Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark. Read at source 29 September 2026.