Metro area, Pennsylvania
Altoona, PA
58,650 people work in this area, at mean pay of $54,240 a year (BLS, May 2025), in every industry. What follows is how much of their working time the best AI models could finish, when, and in which jobs and tasks. Estimates.
of the paid hours. Estimate.
a year: 24 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 33%
- 18%
- 49%
of the paid hours are within reach now in tasks people already bring to Claude. Another 18% is within reach in tasks not yet seen there.
Across the US: 22% within reach now and 37% by the end of 2028, on the long-run pace at four in five.
Share of the paid hours within reach, now to 2030
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this area's paid hours were within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 2%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 19%. Today's estimate: 22%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Where the hours are
Jobs by hours within reach now. The 40 largest jobs hold 57% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Office Clerks, General | 1,240 | 54% | 1.4 million | $42K |
| Customer Service Representatives | 800 | 64% | 1.1 million | $38K |
| Retail Salespersons | 2,090 | 19% | 843,357 | $28K |
| Registered Nurses | 1,390 | 28% | 803,755 | $82K |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 470 | 78% | 758,618 | $43K |
| General and Operations Managers | 1,460 | 23% | 692,395 | $84K |
| Cashiers | 1,600 | 19% | 615,680 | $28K |
| Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive | 640 | 43% | 567,093 | $39K |
| Stockers and Order Fillers | 1,400 | 19% | 553,280 | $34K |
| Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education | 700 | 32% | 467,377 | $61K |
| Receptionists and Information Clerks | 370 | 59% | 452,525 | $32K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers | 630 | 28% | 369,535 | $42K |
People: BLS counts for this area, May 2025. Pay here: the median paid for the job in this area, else its mean, else the national median. 232 smaller jobs (22,700 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 90% of the area's people; the rest are in BLS "all other" groups with no task list, or in counts BLS does not publish.
The tasks with the most hours within reach by the end of 2028
Across the whole area, on the chosen pace and reliability.
- Compute, record, and proofread data and other information, such as records or reports.Office Clerks, General310,587 hours100% of the task within reach
- Maintain knowledge of current sales and promotions, policies regarding payment and exchanges, and security practices.Retail Salespersons253,246 hours50% of the task within reach
- Keep periodic balance sheets of amounts and numbers of transactions.Cashiers235,256 hours100% of the task within reach
- Perform administrative or managerial functions, such as taking responsibility for a unit's staff, budget, planning, or long-range goals.Registered Nurses232,891 hours60% of the task within reach
- Direct and coordinate activities of businesses or departments concerned with the production, pricing, sales, or distribution of products.General and Operations Managers186,690 hours40% of the task within reach
- Obtain and examine all relevant information to assess validity of complaints and to determine possible causes, such as extreme weather conditions that could increase utility bills.Customer Service Representatives181,060 hours100% of the task within reach
- Set prices or credit terms for goods or services, based on forecasts of customer demand.General and Operations Managers178,479 hours100% of the task within reach
- Maintain and update filing, inventory, mailing, and database systems, either manually or using a computer.Office Clerks, General173,033 hours80% of the task within reach
- Prepare staff work schedules and assign specific duties.General and Operations Managers168,165 hours80% of the task within reach
- Compile and maintain non-monetary reports and records.Cashiers167,631 hours100% of the task within reach
Other areas in Pennsylvania
Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD2,897,830 people22% now, 37% by 2028
- Pittsburgh, PA1,114,490 people22% now, 37% by 2028
- Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ377,180 people21% now, 33% by 2028
- Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA335,010 people22% now, 36% by 2028
- Scranton--Wilkes-Barre, PA255,620 people21% now, 32% by 2028
- Lancaster, PA252,230 people21% now, 32% by 2028
- Central Pennsylvania nonmetropolitan area187,680 people21% now, 30% by 2028
- York-Hanover, PA183,590 people21% now, 32% by 2028
How it is built: BLS counts the people in each job in this area; each job's tasks and their lengths give its share within reach at a date; the area's share is those shares weighted by people. Value is pay times 1.43 for benefits and payroll costs. Seen in Claude use splits today's share by whether Anthropic saw people bring each task to Claude in 2025; other AI tools are not counted. How it works