Throughline

Skilled trades

General Maintenance and Repair Worker in San Antonio

36 postings read · sampled 2026-09-01 · source ats

What employers actually ask for

Credentials named in the 36 postings we read, ranked by how many mentioned each one.

What it costs

Exam and application fees plus typical self-study hours. Almost nobody needs every credential on this list — start with the top line.

Most-asked-for, on its own
$200CDL-A · ~160 hrs
asked for in 2 of 36 postings — 6%
If you earned all 2 of them
$350
fees checked 2026-08
8160 hrs
8160 hours — over a year at 10 hrs/wk

Not in the total: Bachelor's Degree — cost varies by institution.

What the official taxonomy says

O*NET surveys people already doing this job. That describes who got hired over a long window, not what employers are asking for now — where it disagrees with the counts above, the counts are the more current answer.

Education reported by people doing this job
63%reported post-secondary certificate
  • Post-secondary certificate63%
  • High school diploma or equivalent25%
  • Some college, no degree7%

Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed. Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

O*NET 49-9071.00 · pulled 2026-09-01 · percentages are of surveyed workers, each rounded separately, so they need not total 100

This sample is small enough that one posting moves any percentage by more than a couple of points, so we are not calling anything low-signal here. Read the numbers above as a direction, not a measurement.

What it pays

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. A different survey from the postings above, so the two do not share a sample.

$31,190
10th percentile
$45,380
median
$71,880
90th percentile

Every credential above costs $350 — about 2 days' pay at the median.

Who was hiring

Employers with at least one matching posting in this sample.

SpaceX · Walmart · Nimble Robotics · Able Services (ABM) · Action Property Management · Fanatics Commerce · HelloFresh · Hut 8 · MAT Holdings · SpawGlass · The Mural Group · Thrive Market

The same role elsewhere

Next

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