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What They Do
About This Career
Operates crematory equipment to reduce human or animal remains to bone fragments in accordance with state and local regulations. Duties may include preparing the body for cremation and performing general maintenance on crematory equipment. May use traditional flame-based cremation, calcination, or alkaline hydrolysis.
This career is part of the Human Services cluster Personal Care Services pathway.
A person in this career:
- Cleans the crematorium, including tables, floors, and equipment.
- Documents divided remains to ensure parts are not misplaced.
- Embalms, dresses, or otherwise prepares the deceased for viewing.
- Explains the cremation process to family or friends of the deceased.
- Offers counsel and comfort to bereaved families or friends.
- Picks up and handles human or pet remains in a respectful manner.
- Places corpses into crematory machines to reduce remains to bone fragments using flame, heat, or alkaline hydrolysis.
- Pulverizes remaining bone fragments into smaller pieces, using specialized equipment, such as a cremulator or grinder.
- Reads documentation to confirm the identity of the deceased.
- Removes jewelry, watches, or other personal items from the deceased prior to cremation.
Working Conditions and Physical Demands
People who do this job report that:
- You would often handle loads up to 50 lbs., sometimes up to 100 lbs. You will need a lot of strength at this level.
- Work in this occupation involves use of protective items such as safety shoes, glasses, gloves, hearing protection, a hard hat, or personal flotation devices
- Exposure to pollutants, gases, dust, fumes, odors, poor ventilation, etc.
- Exposed to disease and infections more than once a month through work such as patient care, laboratory work, and sanitation control
- Work in this occupation involves using your hands to hold, control, and feel objects more than one-third of the time
- Exposed to conditions such as high voltage electricity, combustibles, explosives, and chemicals more than once a month
- Work in this occupation requires being inside most of the time
Work Hours and Travel
- Regular working hours and limited travel
Every year the U.S. Department of Labor conducts national surveys of wage data by occupation in every state and in all industry divisions. These surveys are conducted through the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program.
The statistics collected for one year are published the next fall. For example, 2013 wage information was published in the fall of 2014.
There are over 800 occupations in the surveys, and these occupations cover the entire U.S. labor market. The surveys ask for reports in a scale of ranges for both hourly wages and annual wages.
In many cases, these occupations are broad enough to cover many more detailed specialties of an occupation. A specific occupation may be included in a broader occupational category for which labor market data is available. When you look at the statistics for a broad category, be aware that the salary data for a specific career may differ.
For more details about how wage information is collected and calculated by the U.S. Department of Labor, visit their website at http://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm.
Every year the U.S. Department of Labor conducts a national survey of over 400,000
employers in every state and in all industry divisions. This survey is conducted
through the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program. Every other year the
department publishes outlook information based on these surveys.
Each outlook period covers 10 years. For example, in 2003 the outlook information
was published for 2004-2014. Employers are asked to report the number of employees
in about 770 different occupations that cover the entire U.S. labor market.
From this information, staffing patterns for different industries are established.
Industry growth is projected into the future based on past trends and current economic
conditions. Industry staffing patterns are then applied to the industry projections
to obtain occupational projections.
In many cases, these occupations are broad enough to cover many more detailed specialties
of an occupation. A specific occupation may be included in a broader occupational
category for which labor market data is available. When you look at the statistics
for a broad category, be aware that the employment data for a specific field may
differ.
For more details about how employment information is collected and calculated by
the U.S. Department of Labor, visit their website at http://stats.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.
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