Production Operator Salaries and Skills in Europe

If you're looking at production operator roles in Europe, pay and job requirements differ a lot by country. Here's what NewLuxJob's own job ads show for this role in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Czechia, Belgium and Poland.

What production operators earn, by country

In France, the median advertised salary for a production operator is 21,310 euros a year, based on 722 job postings. The middle half of these ads falls between 20,681 and 23,500 euros.

In Germany, the median is 28,560 euros, from 243 postings, with the middle half of ads ranging from 26,040 to 32,760 euros.

The Netherlands shows the highest median in this data, 32,600 euros, from 159 postings, with the middle half between 27,770 and 36,896 euros.

In Czechia, the median is 12,662 euros, based on a much larger sample of 4,460 postings, with the middle half of ads sitting between 11,123 and 14,897 euros.

These figures are NewLuxJob's own numbers from its job ads for this role, not figures from a public statistics agency.

Skills most mentioned in production operator ads

"Production" is the keyword that shows up most often across the board. It appears in 97% of 1,187 German ads, 97% of 1,133 French ads, 99% of 1,136 Belgian ads, 100% of 388 Dutch ads, and 85% of 962 Polish ads.

Quality Control is the next most recurring theme in several countries: it is listed in 32% of German ads, 13% of French ads, 31% of Polish ads and 1% of Belgian ads. It does not appear among the top skills listed for the Netherlands in this data.

Assembly is mentioned in 29% of German ads, 25% of Polish ads, 15% of French ads, 7% of Belgian ads and 5% of Dutch ads.

Where ads differ by country

Packaging appears in 30% of Polish ads, 23% of German ads, 12% of French ads, 3% of Belgian ads and 1% of Dutch ads.

Machine Operation is listed in 29% of Polish ads, 16% of German ads, 3% of French ads, 1% of Dutch ads and 0% of Belgian ads.

Shift Work is named in 21% of German ads and 1% of Polish ads, but it does not appear among the top listed skills for France, Belgium or the Netherlands in this data.

A few other mentions are specific to single countries: 5S appears in 2% of French ads and 0% of Belgian ads, while GMP and Forklift each appear in 1% of Dutch ads.

What this means if you're applying

The skill lists point to where each country's employers put their emphasis. In the Netherlands, ads are concentrated almost entirely on Production itself, with only small mentions of Assembly, Machine Operation, Packaging, Forklift or GMP. In Poland, ads spread more evenly across Production, Quality Control, Packaging, Machine Operation and Assembly. Germany's ads combine a high share of Production with notable mentions of Quality Control, Assembly, Packaging and Shift Work.

On pay, the medians in this data range from 12,662 euros in Czechia to 32,600 euros in the Netherlands, with France and Germany in between. The middle-half ranges given for each country also show that advertised pay varies within a single national market, not just between countries.

These figures cover only the countries, roles and sample sizes listed above, taken from NewLuxJob's own production operator job ads.