Pay by city Government data
BLS publishes welder pay for 5 Puerto Rico metros. The highest-paying is Ponce at $31,680, followed by San Juan and Mayaguez.
| Metro | Median pay | Real pay | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| PoncePUERTO RICO · PR | $31,680 | — | 100 |
| San JuanPUERTO RICO · PR | $30,390 | — | 1,240 |
| MayaguezPUERTO RICO · PR | $30,230 | — | 70 |
| AreciboPUERTO RICO · PR | $29,380 | — | 150 |
| AguadillaPUERTO RICO · PR | $28,450 | — | 90 |
Pay: BLS OEWS, May 2025 (metro-level). Real pay: BEA price parities, 2024. How we calculate
The job (national)
Use hand-welding, flame-cutting, hand-soldering, or brazing equipment to weld or join metal components or to fill holes, indentations, or seams of fabricated metal products.
Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 2.4% from 2025 to 2035, with about 40,300 openings a year. Typical training: moderate-term on-the-job training.
Nationally, welders have 43 injuries or illnesses serious enough to miss work per 10,000 full-time workers, 50% below the rate for all jobs (87). The most common cause is being struck by or caught in objects and equipment.
What the work is like Government data
How often welders deal with each condition, from surveys of workers in the job.
Getting started usually takes some preparation (high school plus months of training).
O*NET 31.0 Work Context and Job Zones (U.S. Department of Labor), national.
Serious injuries & deaths reported to OSHA Government data
Puerto Rico runs its own workplace-safety program (an OSHA State Plan), so its injury reports aren't in the federal dataset. Nationally, in states federal OSHA covers, metal fabrication plants filed 4,763 severe injury reports from 2015 to 2024; the most common cause was contact with objects and equipment (77%).
OSHA Severe Injury Reports, January 2015–December 2024 (states under federal OSHA only).
Fatality investigations: OSHA Fatality Inspection Data, events 2015–2024, all states.
Where to train in Puerto Rico Government data
9 schools in Puerto Rico offer precision metal working (welding, machining, sheet metal) programs below the bachelor's level, 1 of them at public colleges. Many people in this trade learn through an apprenticeship instead; a program can shorten it or get you hired as a helper.
Where published, graduates earned a median of $28,570 in their first year out.
| School | Credential | Yearly cost | Recent grads | First-year pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mech-Tech College Caguas, PR · Private for-profit | Certificate | $20,396 | 227 | — |
| Colegio Mayor de Tecnologia Inc Arroyo, PR · Private for-profit | Certificate | $13,172 | 193 | $26,454 |
| Automeca Technical College-Ponce Ponce, PR · Private for-profit | Certificate | $13,908 | 64 | — |
| NUC University Bayamon, PR · Private for-profit | Certificate | $19,031 | 37 | $40,022 |
| Automeca Technical College-Caguas Caguas, PR · Private for-profit | Certificate | $15,109 | 35 | — |
| Mech-Tech College Caguas, PR · Private for-profit | Associate degree | $20,396 | 31 | $28,570 |
| Automeca Technical College-Aguadilla Aguadilla, PR · Private for-profit | Certificate | $14,241 | 21 | — |
| Automeca Technical College-Bayamon Bayamon, PR · Private for-profit | Certificate | $14,414 | 16 | — |
U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard (data updated October 2026). Cost is the school's average yearly cost of attendance before financial aid; earnings are the median for graduates one year after finishing, shown only where the school has enough graduates to publish. “—” means not published.
Licensing in Puerto Rico Official source
Check with local authorities in Puerto Rico. Check with the building or licensing office where you plan to work.
Requirements for welders vary by state and sometimes by city; always confirm with the official agency.
Cities in Puerto Rico
All trades in Puerto Rico.