Slaughterers and Meat Packers build social perceptiveness, operations monitoring and quality control analysis skills that carry over to other work. Below are 25 careers ranked by how closely their skills match, with pay from BLS May 2025. The closest match is Food Preparation Workers (82%).
Updated October 2026 · Data: O*NET 31.0 and BLS OEWS May 2025 · How we match careers
Sorted by skill match.
| # | Career | Skill match | Median pay | Pay change | Extra education |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Food Preparation Workers | 82% | $35,320 | −12% | None |
| 2 | Cooks, Restaurant | 81% | $37,390 | −7% | None |
| 3 | Packers and Packagers, Hand | 80% | $36,280 | −10% | None |
| 4 | Graders and Sorters, Agricultural Products | 79% | $35,730 | −11% | None |
| 5 | Farmworkers, Farm, Ranch, and Aquacultural Animals | 79% | $36,670 | −9% | None |
| 6 | Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria | 79% | $37,450 | −7% | None |
| 7 | Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse | 77% | $35,660 | −11% | None |
| 8 | Animal Breeders | 77% | $51,130 | +27% | None |
| 9 | Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders | 75% | $43,220 | +8% | None |
| 10 | Cooks, Short Order | 73% | $35,880 | −11% | None |
Compared with Slaughterers and Meat Packers, median $40,130. Skill match is our estimate (0–99) from O*NET 31.0 skills, knowledge, work activities and interests, adjusted for preparation and big pay drops. Pay: BLS OEWS May 2025, national median.
How important each skill is in work as slaughterers and meat packers (O*NET importance, scale 1–5).
The gaps that show up most often across your top 10 matches.
Free and low-cost training: use the CareerOneStop training finder below.
A concrete first step, the skills to add, and the hard parts of each job, from O*NET 31.0 education, training and work context data.
82% skill match · $35,320 · −12% pay
Time Management · Service Orientation · Coordination
81% skill match · $37,390 · −7% pay
Time Management · Judgment and Decision Making · Coordination
80% skill match · $36,280 · −10% pay
Coordination · Programming · Judgment and Decision Making
If you want to stay close to what you do now, these roles are the nearest.
The closest matches are Food Preparation Workers (82% skill match, median $35,320), Cooks, Restaurant (81% skill match, median $37,390) and Packers and Packagers, Hand (80% skill match, median $36,280), based on O*NET 31.0 data and BLS May 2025 pay.
Among the 25 matches, 10 pay more than slaughterers and meat packers at the median. The biggest increases: Animal Breeders (+27%, $51,130), Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders (+25%, $50,270) and Hazardous Materials Removal Workers (+23%, $49,450).
25 of the 25 matches usually need no more education than you have now, based on O*NET Job Zones.
We compare the importance of skills, knowledge, work activities and interests in O*NET 31.0 for your job and every other career, then adjust for extra preparation and big pay drops. The full method is on our Methodology page.