Metro area, Alabama
Decatur, AL
61,240 people work in this area, at mean pay of $57,830 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: 23 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 31%
- 15%
- 54%
of the paid hours are within reach now in tasks people already bring to Claude. Another 16% 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, 18%. Today's estimate: 20%.
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 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive | 1,260 | 43% | 1.1 million | $44K |
| Customer Service Representatives | 710 | 64% | 951,059 | $41K |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 580 | 78% | 936,168 | $46K |
| Retail Salespersons | 1,580 | 19% | 637,562 | $32K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers | 950 | 32% | 630,346 | $84K |
| Registered Nurses | 960 | 28% | 555,112 | $68K |
| Cashiers | 1,260 | 19% | 484,848 | $29K |
| Stockers and Order Fillers | 1,200 | 19% | 474,240 | $32K |
| Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products | 620 | 36% | 461,678 | $71K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers | 540 | 40% | 453,774 | $38K |
| Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers | 1,420 | 14% | 404,643 | $59K |
| General and Operations Managers | 850 | 23% | 403,107 | $117K |
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. 222 smaller jobs (23,720 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 89% 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.
- Coordinate conferences, meetings, or special events, such as luncheons or graduation ceremonies.Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive275,958 hours53% of the task within reach
- Use computers for various applications, such as database management or word processing.Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive251,670 hours100% of the task within reach
- Plan and establish work schedules, assignments, and production sequences to meet production goals.First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers222,894 hours100% of the task within reach
- Set up and manage paper or electronic filing systems, recording information, updating paperwork, or maintaining documents, such as attendance records, correspondence, or other material.Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive202,835 hours70% of the task within reach
- Plan and develop new products and production processes.First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers198,859 hours67% of the task within reach
- Maintain knowledge of current sales and promotions, policies regarding payment and exchanges, and security practices.Retail Salespersons191,449 hours50% of the task within reach
- Operate computers programmed with accounting software to record, store, and analyze information.Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks188,621 hours100% of the task within reach
- Keep periodic balance sheets of amounts and numbers of transactions.Cashiers185,264 hours100% of the task within reach
- Plan and establish sequence of operations to fabricate and assemble parts or products and to promote efficient utilization.Industrial Engineers176,915 hours99% of the task within reach
- Analyze test results, machine error messages, or information obtained from operators to diagnose equipment problems.Industrial Machinery Mechanics172,465 hours100% of the task within reach
Other areas in Alabama
Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Birmingham, AL520,290 people22% now, 36% by 2028
- Huntsville, AL266,650 people21% now, 40% by 2028
- Mobile, AL172,550 people22% now, 34% by 2028
- Montgomery, AL165,550 people22% now, 35% by 2028
- Northeast Alabama nonmetropolitan area152,620 people19% now, 28% by 2028
- Tuscaloosa, AL108,460 people20% now, 31% by 2028
- Daphne-Fairhope-Foley, AL87,120 people21% now, 30% by 2028
- Southeast Alabama nonmetropolitan area83,750 people20% 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