All Minecraft villager jobs explained (2023)

Minecraft's villagers are just like humans. They wake up, get their work done for the day and go back to sleep. This is how the developers have been able to keep it lively and interactive as well.

However, some villagers don't have jobs at all and are called "Nitwits" in Minecraft. These villagers usually go to their respective job blocks, do nothing and call it a day. Minecraft villager jobs help the players in a lot of ways and players can contact each villager in the game accordingly. They can also change how the game plays out for each player individually as well.

Villager jobs should be thoroughly known by all players for them to understand what to do when they come across a villager in the game.

All villager jobs in Minecraft (2023)

Minecraft offers a diverse range of 13 unique villager jobs, each with a distinct set of valuable trades to offer. Initially, every villager begins as a novice, but as players start to engage in trading with them, they gain valuable experience and unlock new trade options. To turn an unemployed villager into a professional, players will need to create jobsite blocks and place them near unemployed villagers to assign jobs.

Here are all the villager jobs that players will come across in the latest version of the game in 2023:

Professions of Minecraft villagers

Listed below are all of the possible professions that a villager can have (excluding the Nitwits):

Armorer
Butcher
Cartographer
Cleric
Farmer
Fisherman
Fletcher
Leatherworker
Librarian
Mason/Stone Mason (JE/BE)
Shepherd
Toolsmith
Weaponsmith

Armorer

Workstation: Blast Furnace

Created when an unemployed villager claims a blast furnace block, armorers love working on armor much like their name suggests. They’re willing to trade away items like iron armor, shields, and bell blocks. However, if Minecraft fans raise their experience to the expert and master levels, armorers will also sell enchanted diamond armor pieces to players with the emeralds to pay for them.

Butcher

Workstation: Smoker

Paired with the smoker block, butcher villagers will buy raw meats from players and also sell cooked meats. In addition to offering trades for cooked porkchops and chicken, novice-level butchers will also provide rabbit stew to players for the low cost of a single emerald. At higher levels, butchers will also purchase dried kelp blocks, sweet berries, and raw beef/mutton.

Cartographer

Workstation: Cartography Table

If Minecraft players love maps, then the cartographer villager is worth seeking out. This worker is tied to cartography tables and can sell empty maps as well as ocean and woodland explorer maps as it raises in profession level.

By the time it reaches the expert and master level, the cartographer can also sell item frames, blank banners of various colors, and the globe banner pattern.

Cleric

Workstation: Brewing Stand

Created when a villager claims a brewing stand block, clerics are potion-centric villagers that offer players brewing ingredients like redstone dust and lapis lazuli as they level up. They’re willing to buy the fairly useless rotten flesh item, and they even offer glowstone blocks and ender pearls as they gain experience levels.

Best of all, master-level clerics will make Bottles O’ Enchanting available for purchase.

Farmer

Workstation: Composter

Using composters as their work blocks, farmers tend to their farm plots but are willing to trade with players as well. In addition to buying most in-game crops, farmers can sell plenty of food items like bread, apples, cake, and cookies. At the highest profession levels, farmers will also sell various suspicious stews, golden carrots, and glistering melon slices.

While these villagers trade with players, they’re also responsible for feeding their fellow villagers. This is one of the core components of raising the willingness of villages so that they can breed if beds are available.

Fisherman

Fishermen favor selling their catches, but will offer up fishing rods as well (Image via Mojang)

Workstation: Barrel

Fisherman villagers call barrels their work blocks of choice, and will buy raw fish, coal, and string. Furthermore, these villagers sell cooked cod and salmon, buckets of live cod, and even campfire blocks as they progress through their profession levels. Best of all, journeyman-level fisherman will sell enchanted fishing rods to players who can pony up the emerald cost.

Fletcher

Workstation: Flectching Table

After claiming a fletching table block, Minecraft villagers will become fletchers. This profession centers on bows and crossbows, varieties of arrows, as well as crafting ingredients like string and flint. At expert and master experience levels, fletchers will even sell enchanted bows and crossbows as well as tipped arrows that bestow various status effects.

Leatherworker

Workstation: Cauldron

After claiming a cauldron, an unemployed Minecraft villager will take on a career in leatherworking. As the name implies, leatherworkers provide pieces of leather armor, both for players and for horse mobs. Furthermore, at their maximum level of master, leatherworkers will also sell saddles for riding various in-game mobs.

Librarian

Workstation: Lectern

Librarian villagers are created in Minecraft when a villager claims a lectern. In addition to offering the likes of lanterns, bookshelves, clocks, compasses, and nametags, librarians sell enchanted books. Depending on the trade, players can get some very impressive enchantments early on just by trading with a librarian villager.

As of Minecraft’s 23w31a snapshot, librarians have been reworked. The enchantments they offer now depend on the biome they call home as well as their profession level, with the best enchantments only being provided for sale at master level.

Mason

Workstation: Stonecutter

Mason villagers are the result of the claiming of a stonecutter block, and these villagers work with Minecraft’s various stone and clay blocks. In addition to selling bricks, masons offer polished andesite, diorite, and granite as well as dripstone blocks. At higher levels, masons are also willing to part with colored and glazed terracotta and even quartz blocks.

Shepherd

Workstation: Loom

Shepherds are connected to loom blocks as a work block in Minecraft. Most of their trades are centered around buying dyes and wool blocks, but they begin to offer sales at higher levels. At novice level, shepherds will offer shears, but as they gain experience they can also sell wool, beds, carpets, and banners of any color. Master shepherds will also sell paintings for emeralds, though this isn’t the best trade opportunity.

Toolsmith

Workstation: Smithing Table

Once a villager has claimed a smithing table in Minecraft, they take on the job of a toolsmith. As the name implies, these villagers sell tools like pickaxes, axes, shovels, etc. As their experience levels climb, they offer tools of higher quality. This includes not just diamond tools, but enchanted diamond tools that are worth their weight in emeralds.

Weaponsmith

Workstation: Grindstone

After linking up with a grindstone block, a Minecraft villager becomes a weaponsmith, also known as a blacksmith. Even at early levels, weaponsmiths offer iron weapons like swords and axes, including enchanted iron swords. At their highest levels of progression, weaponsmiths are also willing to sell enchanted diamond axes and swords for a decent emerald price.

The Wandering Trader

Although the Wandering Trader isn’t technically a villager profession, it does resemble a villager and offers trades like them as well. It tends to offer up natural resources or those that aren’t easily renewed, though the prices for its transactions vary and often can be somewhat overpriced.

Wandering Traders spawn randomly around a player's location, and eventually despawn after sometimes. Players are recommended to check out their trades and see if there's anything worth buying or not. These nomad villagers have a wide variety of trades, ranging from rare flowers to diverse saplings.

Fortunately, Minecraft’s 23w31a snapshot has reworked the Wandering Trader so that it can buy certain materials from players in addition to selling them. Furthermore, the trader’s prices were adjusted to be more sensible and helpful by expanding the mob’s inventory.

How to change villager jobs in Minecraft

Changing a villager's job is easy (Image via Mojang)

If players aren’t particularly satisfied with the current job a villager has, they can switch it just by using the appropriate work block and setting it nearby at the appropriate time of day. Villagers don’t work very early in the morning or very late at night, but if players have the appropriate work block, they should be able to switch a villager’s job in just a few short steps.

How to switch a villager’s profession

Find the work block that the villager in question is bound to. Depending on the profession, various work blocks are connected. Break this block and the villager should revert to an unemployed one.
Next, during the ordinary hours that villagers are out working, place the new work block you’d like the villager to bond to. Contrary to popular belief, a villager doesn’t need a bed to claim a work block, it simply needs to have unobstructed access to the block.
The unemployed villager should make its way to the newly-placed work block as long as it’s capable of doing so. Afterward, it will convert to the new profession that the work block bestows. Keep in mind that the villager will begin at the novice experience level.

How to get villager jobs in Minecraft

Place workstation blocks to assign job to a villager (Image via Mojang)

As previously noted, villagers require a work block, also known as a job site block, to acquire a profession. If players notice that there are several unemployed villagers, they can place down work site blocks to provide the villagers employment. As long as the blocks aren’t too far out of the village’s confines and the inhabitants can travel to them, they should pick up their jobs as soon as they’re out and about during their day.

The lone exception to this rule involves nitwit villagers who wear green tunics. These villagers are incapable of trading or acquiring a job at all.

As long as each villager has a job block to claim, other factors such as housing, bedding, or food in their inventory shouldn’t impede their ability to get a profession. However, it’s important to note that each villager will need their own job site block, as multiple villagers can’t claim a job from the same workstation.

All work blocks and the jobs they give in Minecraft

Armorer - Blast Furnace
Butcher - Smoker
Cartographer - Cartography Table
Cleric - Brewing Stand
Farmer - Composter Block
Fisherman - Barrel
Fletcher - Fletching Table
Leatherworker - Cauldron
Librarian - Lectern
Mason/Stone Mason - Stonecutter
Shepherd - Loom
Toolsmith - Smithing Table
Weaponsmith - Grindstone

Here are all the items needed for crafting each workstation block in Minecraft:

Blast Furnace: Five iron ingots, one furnace, and three smooth stones
Smoker: Any four wood blocks and one furnace
Cartography Table: Any four planks and two paper
Brewing Stand: Any cobbled stone block and one blaze rod
Composter: Any seven wooden slabs
Barrel: Any six wooden planks and two wooden slabs
Fletching Table: Any four wooden planks and two flints
Cauldron: Seven iron ingots
Lectern: Any four wooden planks and one bookshelf
Stonecutter: One iron ingot and three stone blocks
Loom: Any two planks and two strings
Smithing Table: Two iron ingots and any four planks
Grindstone: Any two planks, two sticks, and one stone slab

Aside from a few specific workstation blocks, many of them have valuable functions beyond trading with villagers. For instance, the smithing table is handy for adding armor trims and crafting powerful Netherite gear.

The brewing stand is essential for creating potions that can be extremely helpful in various situations. These are just a couple of examples, but there are several other workstations that serve important purposes beyond trading with villagers.

Minecraft Villager Jobs FAQ

1) Why villager is not losing job?

A villager won't lose its job if it has already completed a trade. There is no way to change a villager's job if a player has already trade an item with it. If a village's XP bar is above zero or it has unlocked more than two trades, then it cannot lose its job.

2) Are there jobless villagers?

In Minecraft, players can come across villagers without jobs, known as "nitwits." Nitwits don't pick a job when near workstation blocks. They tend to stay up late, sleep in, and enjoy playing with baby villagers.

3) Why won't villager take the job?

Check if the villager isn't a nitwit, as they can't do jobs. Nitwits wear unique green clothing. If a normal villager isn't taking a job, it might mean another villager is using the workstation. Players should try adding more workstation blocks and be patient.

4) Why are villagers not restocking their trades?

Villagers can only refill their trades if they can access their workstation. If it's too far away, they won't restock. Villagers are known to restock their trades twice a day in Minecraft.

5) Which villagers seed diamond weapons, armor, and tools in Minecraft?

Players can trade with master-level weaponsmith to get diamond weapons, master-level toolsmith to get diamond tools, and master-level armorer to get diamond armor pieces. Most of them come along with useful enchantments as well.

Edited by Rachel Syiemlieh

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