Slaughterers and Meat Packers

What the job really is

Perform nonroutine or precision functions involving the preparation of large portions of meat. Work may include specialized slaughtering tasks, cutting standard or premium cuts of meat for marketing, making sausage, or wrapping meats. Work typically occurs in slaughtering, meat packing, or wholesale establishments.

At a glance

• Sector: Production
• O*NET-SOC code: 51-3023
• O*NET job zone: 2 — some preparation
• Work sample tasks on file: 12
• Tools and technologies listed: 12

What you actually do

Work sample tasks recorded for this occupation:

• Remove bones, and cut meat into standard cuts in preparation for marketing.
• Sever jugular veins to drain blood and facilitate slaughtering.
• Tend assembly lines, performing a few of the many cuts needed to process a carcass.
• Shackle hind legs of animals to raise them for slaughtering or skinning.
• Slit open, eviscerate, and trim carcasses of slaughtered animals.
• Stun animals prior to slaughtering.
• Skin sections of animals or whole animals.
• Cut, trim, skin, sort, and wash viscera of slaughtered animals to separate edible portions from offal.
• Shave or singe and defeather carcasses, and wash them in preparation for further processing or packaging.
• Saw, split, or scribe carcasses into smaller portions to facilitate handling.
• Trim head meat, and sever or remove parts of animals' heads or skulls.
• Grind meat into hamburger, and into trimmings used to prepare sausages, luncheon meats, and other meat products.

Tools and technology

Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Office software, AccountMate Software AccountMate, AgInfoLink Meat Inventory Tracking System MITS, Bacon slicers, Belt conveyor systems, Blast chillers, Butcher knives, Carcass branding machines, Casing stuffing machines, Chop cutting machines, Cubing machines

What employers expect you to already be comfortable with.

Where this job leads

Related occupations — the usual moves up and sideways:

• Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers
• Butchers and Meat Cutters
• Farmworkers, Farm, Ranch, and Aquacultural Animals
• Graders and Sorters, Agricultural Products
• Food Preparation Workers
• Animal Breeders
• Packers and Packagers, Hand
• Cooks, Restaurant

Getting in

O*NET assigns this occupation job zone 2 (some preparation). The related occupations above are the realistic routes in and out.

Find openings

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Check this against the source

O*NET OnLine: Slaughterers and Meat Packers — the authoritative public-domain profile this page is derived from, including the full task list, reported skills and the wage estimates for your region.

Derived and rewritten from the public-domain O*NET database (U.S. Department of Labor / Employment and Training Administration). Figures are observations, not promises — always confirm salary, licensing and visa requirements with the employer and the relevant authority.