Metro area, Illinois
Decatur, IL
45,550 people work in this area, at mean pay of $63,570 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: 16 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 32%
- 17%
- 51%
of the paid hours are within reach now in tasks people already bring to Claude. Another 17% 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 62% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerks | 590 | 53% | 649,189 | $46K |
| Office Clerks, General | 540 | 54% | 609,898 | $44K |
| Customer Service Representatives | 420 | 64% | 562,598 | $40K |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 330 | 78% | 532,647 | $48K |
| Cashiers | 1,210 | 19% | 465,608 | $31K |
| Registered Nurses | 790 | 28% | 456,811 | $87K |
| General and Operations Managers | 950 | 23% | 450,531 | $96K |
| Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive | 500 | 43% | 443,041 | $46K |
| Retail Salespersons | 950 | 19% | 383,344 | $34K |
| Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers | 990 | 14% | 282,110 | $59K |
| Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand | 1,430 | 9% | 267,696 | $46K |
| Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel | 290 | 43% | 259,377 | $60K |
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. 163 smaller jobs (14,100 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 81% 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.
- Design new equipment to aid in the repair or maintenance of machines, mechanical equipment, or building structures.Maintenance and Repair Workers, General203,809 hours70% of the task within reach
- Record numbers of units handled or moved, using daily production sheets or work tickets.Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand199,166 hours100% of the task within reach
- Keep periodic balance sheets of amounts and numbers of transactions.Cashiers177,913 hours100% of the task within reach
- Prepare documents, such as work orders, bills of lading, or shipping orders, to route materials.Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerks157,278 hours100% of the task within reach
- Formulate or modify recipes for specific kinds of food products.Food Batchmakers140,390 hours99% of the task within reach
- Compute, record, and proofread data and other information, such as records or reports.Office Clerks, General135,256 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 Nurses132,362 hours60% of the task within reach
- Compile and maintain non-monetary reports and records.Cashiers126,771 hours100% of the task within reach
- Develop sales presentations or proposals to explain service specifications.Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel123,875 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 Managers121,476 hours40% of the task within reach
Other areas in Illinois
Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN4,513,280 people22% now, 37% by 2028
- West Central Illinois nonmetropolitan area169,470 people21% now, 31% by 2028
- Peoria, IL166,020 people22% now, 36% by 2028
- East Central Illinois nonmetropolitan area143,050 people21% now, 31% by 2028
- South Illinois nonmetropolitan area141,200 people22% now, 32% by 2028
- Rockford, IL137,650 people21% now, 32% by 2028
- Northwest Illinois nonmetropolitan area126,860 people21% now, 30% by 2028
- Champaign-Urbana, IL105,500 people22% now, 35% 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