Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders job market in Connecticut
Industry trends, wages and hiring signals.
The headline
Industry employment fell while average weekly industry wages rose
A data-driven view of the industries that employ Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders in Connecticut.
Occupation pay
What Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders earn in Connecticut
BLS OEWS occupation-level pay estimates for this role — separate from the industry wage trends used elsewhere in this report.
Median annual wage
$41,720Connecticut- Middle 50% of published wages
- $38,790 – $46,260
- U.S. median annual wage
- $44,810
- Reference period
- May 2025
The middle 50% is the 25th-to-75th percentile wage range, not an experience-level band. Suppressed or unavailable BLS values remain unpublished rather than being estimated.
Verified snapshot
Market at a Glance
Key changes in Connecticut’s weighted industry mix.
Percentage-point gaps use the original published values and are rounded once; subtracting the rounded percentages can give a slightly different result.
Published coverage: 4,370 represented establishments, 82.99% of the published industry mix.
Local research
What the data shows for food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders in Connecticut
Findings describe the published observation periods shown below. Research published Oct 11, 2026.
This occupation is less concentrated in the state
OEWS May 2025 places Connecticut's share of employment in food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders at 0.25 times the corresponding national share. The published location quotient expresses that comparison. The state estimate is 60 jobs, 0.3% of the national employment estimate for this occupation. It represents 0.03 jobs per thousand jobs in the state's OEWS employment universe. Employment concentration does not establish future growth; it describes employment share, not current hiring.
OEWS May 2025 · BLS OEWSOEWS employment estimates describe covered wage-and-salary jobs and exclude self-employed workers; location quotients do not measure vacancies or worker demand.
Industry groups are pulling in opposite directions
A single industry employment figure combines an increase and a decrease in Connecticut in January to March 2026. Among the leading industry groups for this occupation, Leisure and hospitality changed +0.7% year over year and Manufacturing changed -1.5%. The groups examined cover 98.0% of the occupation's national industry mix.
January to March 2026 · BLS QCEWPublished median pay is below the U.S. median
A 6.9% difference separates Connecticut's median annual wage for food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders from the U.S. median in OEWS May 2025. At $41,720, the state median is below the national figure of $44,810. The estimates describe the middle of each wage distribution, without a living-cost adjustment.
OEWS May 2025 · BLS OEWSIndustry measures describe the industries associated with this occupation. They are not direct occupation employment, current openings or a state-level Job Market Health score. Findings describe published data and do not establish causes. Methodology
Employment trends
Connecticut industry employment over time
Year-over-year change in the weighted industries. The U.S. line is the latest-quarter benchmark because a comparable national quarterly history is not published here.
- Connecticut · 2026 Q1-1.4%
- U.S. · latest-quarter benchmark-1.1%
The chart will load automatically. Published values remain available in this report.
View every published value
| Quarter | Connecticut | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 Q2 | -1.0% | 100% |
| 2024 Q3 | -1.0% | 100% |
| 2024 Q4 | -1.0% | 100% |
| 2025 Q1 | -0.8% | 100% |
| 2025 Q2 | -1.8% | 100% |
| 2025 Q3 | -1.9% | 100% |
| 2025 Q4 | -1.6% | 100% |
| 2026 Q1 | -1.4% | 100% |
How to read this chart
State trend and national reference
The solid line follows Connecticut’s published year-over-year industry employment changes by quarter. The dashed U.S. line is a latest-quarter reference, not a second time series.
- Published quarters
- 8
- Earliest quarter
- 2024 Q2
- Latest quarter
- 2026 Q1
- U.S. benchmark
- -1.1%
Quarters with no published value are omitted rather than interpolated.
Industry context
Where Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders Work
The occupation mix determines which Connecticut industries are weighted into this view.
| Industry group | Occupation mix | Employment change | Establishments | Avg. weekly industry wage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manufacturing | 81.3% | -1.5% | 4,370 | $2,359 |
| Trade, transportation, and utilities | 9.1% | -1.7% | 25,279 | $1,462 |
| Leisure and hospitality | 4.0% | +0.7% | 11,865 | $649 |
| Professional and business services | 3.5% | -0.8% | 35,252 | $2,826 |
Which industries are growing?
One weighted industry is growing
Only weighted industries with a published positive Connecticut employment change are listed.
- Leisure and hospitality+0.7%
The remaining weighted industries published a flat or negative change in January to March 2026.
Current Connecticut context
Current Connecticut Market Signals
Statewide indicators for all occupations in Connecticut. They are not Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders demand and are not part of the Job Market Health score.
Statewide job postings
Indeed job postings · Connecticut
Recent hiring-demand context · separate from the health score
Total postings index (seasonally adjusted) by observation date · baseline 100
The chart will load automatically. Published values remain available in this report.
View values: Indeed postings index
| Observation date | Index (Feb 2020 = 100) |
|---|---|
| Jul 24, 2026 | 108.77 |
| Jul 31, 2026 | 108.96 |
| Aug 7, 2026 | 108.71 |
| Aug 14, 2026 | 109.50 |
| Aug 21, 2026 | 109.76 |
| Aug 28, 2026 | 110.63 |
| Sep 4, 2026 | 110.45 |
| Sep 11, 2026 | 111.34 |
| Sep 18, 2026 | 111.76 |
| Sep 25, 2026 | 110.71 |
| Oct 2, 2026 | 109.34 |
| Oct 9, 2026 | 110.41 |
| Oct 16, 2026 | 109.28 |
| Oct 23, 2026 | 109.47 |
This is statewide demand across all occupations, not demand for this specific job. Postings are not a count of vacancies or hires, and Indeed does not cover the entire labor market.
Source: Indeed Hiring Lab · CC BY 4.0. Seven-day average, seasonally adjusted; publisher refreshes weekly and may revise history. Retrieved Nov 1, 2026 · saved source copy. JobMarketHealth calculates the displayed changes and samples weekly observations for the chart.
Statewide layoff notices
Statewide layoff-notice filings
Connecticut statewide6 notices in this source
Notice dates from Aug 5, 2026 to Nov 2, 2026 (UTC), a rolling 90-calendar-day period.
What this means: These are statewide totals from notices dated in this period in Connecticut’s official tracking system. Reported positions are the counts published in those notices, not a count of people confirmed to have lost their jobs. No employer is identified.
Notices describe planned workforce changes, not confirmed job losses. Notices may be amended or withdrawn. This statewide context is not occupation-specific and does not affect the Job Market Health score. Connecticut’s state tracking system also records smaller Rapid Response events that fall below federal WARN thresholds, so it is not a list of federal WARN filings only.
Connecticut Department of Labor About WARN data
Source last checked
Career context
Related occupations
Related roles from the occupation’s published O*NET profile.
Questions answered by this release
Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders in Connecticut FAQs
Each answer is limited to what QCEW 2026 Q1 actually publishes for this state.
Is employment growing for Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders in Connecticut?
The available QCEW measure is not direct occupation employment. Employment across the Connecticut industries weighted to Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders changed -1.4% year over year in January to March 2026, compared with -1.1% nationwide.
Are wages for Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders rising in Connecticut?
QCEW does not publish pay for Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders in this view. Average weekly wages across the weighted industries changed +6.6% year over year; that must not be read as an occupation salary change.
How complete is this Connecticut industry view?
The three core state trends each meet the site’s coverage floor; the minimum published coverage is 100% of the occupation’s industry mix.
Does this page show current Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders openings?
No. QCEW measures industry employment, establishments and wages. Any postings, news or WARN figures shown here are statewide context and are not occupation-specific openings.
Methodology & sourcesQCEW 2026 Q1 · coverage 100% · full evidence record
Methodology & Sources
Derived by JobMarketHealth from BLS QCEW + published occupation industry mix. This is occupation-weighted industry context, not direct occupation employment and not a count of current job openings.
- Occupation
- Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders
- SOC code
- 51-3091
- State
- Connecticut
- QCEW release label
- QCEW 2026 Q1
- Data period
- 2026 Q1
- State industry employment, year over year
- -1.4%State data coverage 100%
- U.S. benchmark, year over year
- -1.1%
- Difference from U.S. benchmark
- -0.3 percentage pointsPercentage-point gaps use the original published values and are rounded once; subtracting the rounded percentages can give a slightly different result.
- Establishments, year over year
- -0.9%State data coverage 100%
- Average weekly industry wage, year over year
- +6.6%State data coverage 100%
- Industry mix vintage
- EP-2025-2035
- BLS publication date
- Aug 28, 2026
- Source verification
- Verified against the committed source snapshotVerified Sep 17, 2026
- Canonical record URL
- https://jobmarkethealth.com/occupations/food-and-tobacco-roasting-baking-and-drying-machine-operators-and-tenders/connecticut#evidence-record
- Derived by
- JobMarketHealth from BLS QCEW + published occupation industry mix
MethodologyBLS QCEWHow to citeQCEW state context release, 2026 Q1
Weighted industry conditions are not direct occupation employment, occupation wages, current openings or a state-level Job Market Health score. No causal explanation is inferred.