Molders

Employers

Approximately 15,600 foundry mold and coremakers are employed in the United States. Most foundries are small operations, with fewer than 250 workers. They are located in areas that have easy access to raw materials, most notably in states such as Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. There also tends to be more jobs in large industrial cities, such as Detroit, where foundries exist solely to supply parts for automobiles. However, some small production companies and factories are located in other areas and they continue to employ molders.

Sand casting is done in both job and production foundries. Job foundries generally specialize in producing specific, small parts that are then sent to production foundries, which produce larger items from such job foundry parts.

Starting Out

A state employment office is a good source to contact for openings in foundry work. You may also go directly to a foundry's personnel office to fill out an application form. Because sand molding is often a job that is represented by a union, it is possible to find available openings through a local office of the representing union.