Metro area, Missouri
Cape Girardeau, MO-IL
44,680 people work in this area, at mean pay of $56,640 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: 18 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 33%
- 20%
- 47%
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, 20%. Today's estimate: 23%.
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 61% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Office Clerks, General | 850 | 54% | 960,025 | $39K |
| Registered Nurses | 1,470 | 28% | 850,015 | $83K |
| Customer Service Representatives | 580 | 64% | 776,922 | $38K |
| General and Operations Managers | 1,450 | 23% | 687,652 | $75K |
| Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education | 1,030 | 30% | 638,436 | $47K |
| Retail Salespersons | 1,460 | 19% | 589,139 | $30K |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 310 | 78% | 500,365 | $46K |
| Cashiers | 1,270 | 19% | 488,696 | $29K |
| Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants | 290 | 81% | 486,783 | $37K |
| Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive | 500 | 43% | 443,041 | $37K |
| Receptionists and Information Clerks | 330 | 59% | 403,603 | $35K |
| Stockers and Order Fillers | 930 | 19% | 367,536 | $35K |
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. 192 smaller jobs (14,820 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 85% 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.
- Perform administrative or managerial functions, such as taking responsibility for a unit's staff, budget, planning, or long-range goals.Registered Nurses246,295 hours60% of the task within reach
- Compute, record, and proofread data and other information, such as records or reports.Office Clerks, General212,903 hours100% of the task within reach
- Keep periodic balance sheets of amounts and numbers of transactions.Cashiers186,735 hours100% 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 Managers185,411 hours40% of the task within reach
- Set prices or credit terms for goods or services, based on forecasts of customer demand.General and Operations Managers177,257 hours100% of the task within reach
- Maintain knowledge of current sales and promotions, policies regarding payment and exchanges, and security practices.Retail Salespersons176,909 hours50% of the task within reach
- Maintain accurate, detailed reports and records.Registered Nurses168,596 hours100% of the task within reach
- Prepare staff work schedules and assign specific duties.General and Operations Managers167,013 hours80% of the task within reach
- Prepare objectives and outlines for courses of study, following curriculum guidelines or requirements of states and schools.Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education161,665 hours100% of the task within reach
- Establish or implement departmental policies, goals, objectives, or procedures in conjunction with board members, organization officials, or staff members.General and Operations Managers154,754 hours59% of the task within reach
Other areas in Missouri
Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- St. Louis, MO-IL1,341,320 people22% now, 36% by 2028
- Kansas City, MO-KS1,096,110 people22% now, 37% by 2028
- Springfield, MO223,030 people23% now, 34% by 2028
- Southeast Missouri nonmetropolitan area164,560 people21% now, 30% by 2028
- Central Missouri nonmetropolitan area154,880 people20% now, 30% by 2028
- Columbia, MO107,680 people23% now, 37% by 2028
- North Missouri nonmetropolitan area106,300 people22% now, 31% by 2028
- Joplin, MO-KS87,190 people21% now, 30% 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