State
Iowa
1,559,240 people work in Iowa, at mean pay of $59,830 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: 737 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 37%
- 7%
- 56%
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: 24% within reach now and 39% 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, 21%. 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 48% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Customer Service Representatives | 30,100 | 67% | 42 million | $46K |
| Office Clerks, General | 23,120 | 58% | 28 million | $44K |
| Cashiers | 41,450 | 30% | 26 million | $29K |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 14,020 | 76% | 22 million | $48K |
| Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants | 10,560 | 87% | 19 million | $41K |
| Retail Salespersons | 41,000 | 20% | 17 million | $31K |
| Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products | 16,990 | 44% | 16 million | $67K |
| Registered Nurses | 34,420 | 21% | 15 million | $79K |
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | 40,290 | 15% | 13 million | $28K |
| General and Operations Managers | 30,760 | 19% | 12 million | $88K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers | 11,400 | 48% | 11 million | $39K |
| Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers | 35,040 | 15% | 11 million | $58K |
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. 673 smaller jobs (800,220 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 98% 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 personnel activities, such as supervising and training employees.Fast Food and Counter Workers12 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Maintain knowledge of current sales and promotions, policies regarding payment and exchanges, and security practices.Retail Salespersons9.9 million 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 Nurses9.6 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Plan, organize, and control the operations of a cocktail lounge or bar.Bartenders7 million hours100% 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 Representatives6.8 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Contact customers to respond to inquiries or to notify them of claim investigation results or any planned adjustments.Customer Service Representatives6.5 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Complete contract forms, prepare change of address records, or issue service discontinuance orders, using computers.Customer Service Representatives6.3 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Keep periodic balance sheets of amounts and numbers of transactions.Cashiers6.1 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Check to ensure that appropriate changes were made to resolve customers' problems.Customer Service Representatives6.1 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Compute, record, and proofread data and other information, such as records or reports.Office Clerks, General5.8 million hours100% of the task within reach
Metro and nonmetro areas in Iowa
Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA404,130 people25% now, 41% by 2028
- Southeast Iowa nonmetropolitan area200,390 people22% now, 32% by 2028
- Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL180,450 people23% now, 37% by 2028
- Northwest Iowa nonmetropolitan area145,960 people22% now, 32% by 2028
- Cedar Rapids, IA139,260 people24% now, 37% by 2028
- Northeast Iowa nonmetropolitan area99,370 people23% now, 33% by 2028
- Iowa City, IA93,760 people24% now, 38% by 2028
- Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA84,260 people23% now, 34% by 2028
- Sioux City, IA-NE-SD75,010 people22% now, 32% by 2028
- Southwest Iowa nonmetropolitan area73,240 people23% now, 32% by 2028
- Dubuque, IA58,470 people25% now, 38% by 2028
- Ames, IA55,890 people23% now, 37% 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