CNC Machinist Salary in South West

What most cnc machinists actually earn

Half of cnc machinists in South West earn between £27,147 and £42,602. Earning above £42,602 puts you in the top quarter of the profession.

ONS suppresses the detailed spread for this occupation at regional level, so this range describes the wider “Metal Machining, Fitting and Instrument Making Trades” group in South West.

Where this figure comes from

ONS occupation group

Metal machining setters and setter-operators

SOC 2020 code

5221

Measure

Gross annual pay, all employees

Edition

ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2025 provisional

ONS publishes a sampling error of 11.2% for this figure and asks that anything above 10% is treated as imprecise — too few people in this region answered the survey for this occupation. The figure is shown because it is the one ONS published, but it is not firm enough to rank South West against anywhere else, so this page doesn't.

ONS doesn't measure “cnc machinist” as its own category. These figures are for the wider group “Metal machining setters and setter-operators”, which includes this role alongside others. ONS measures metal machining setters and setter-operators.

Source: Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Figures are estimates from a survey of PAYE jobs and are not financial advice.