To start off, how do we even know that Jesus was a carpenter? It comes from two references, one in Mark the other in Matthew, both describing the same event. Here’s Mark 6:1-6.

Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.

“Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, a Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.

Matthew 13 tells fundamentally the same story but instead calling Jesus a carpenter, Matthew calls him the son of a carpenter. Those two references are the only ones that tell us anything about Jesus’ or Jospeh’s profession.

In both passages the authors use the same word to describe the profession, τέκτων or tekton. Unfortunately tekton is a very versatile Greek word. It can mean a skilled woods craftsman. But it can also mean general laborer, mason, or builder.

There’s two good reasons to think Mark and Mathew, probably meant something closer to day laborer rather than master craftsman. First is the lack of respect Jesus is awarded in the passages. Contextually it’s pretty clear the locals were not impressed by Jesus’ reputation for wisdom. That fact that he’s swooping in and telling parables and teaching is apparently above his station. A skilled craftsman was a respected position. One wouldn’t expect the locals to diss a craftsman. The implication is thus that Jesus and Jospeh represented a tekton of lesser prestige. The fact that Matthew apparently didn’t like that description and instead changed it so that Joseph was the tekton provides more support that it wasn’t viewed as a prestigious job.

Secondly archeology shows Nazareth was a small peasant village with a few dozen families and no more than a couple hundred inhabitants. It likely wasn’t large enough to support skilled tradesmen. Any woodworker in Nazareth likely would have been employed by his fellow peasants doing relatively simple work.

If Jesus was a tekton from Nazareth, he likely would have spent his days building rough houses, repairing pasture fences, making simple tools and farming implements like yokes and wooden plows. This all however is largely speculative. We only have Mark’s single line describing Jesus as a tekton and no example of what he thought that entailed.