Metro area, Louisiana
Lafayette, LA
179,570 people work in this area, at mean pay of $52,120 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: 73 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 33%
- 17%
- 50%
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: 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 58% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Office Clerks, General | 4,240 | 54% | 4.8 million | $35K |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 2,130 | 78% | 3.4 million | $39K |
| Customer Service Representatives | 2,140 | 64% | 2.9 million | $37K |
| Registered Nurses | 4,930 | 28% | 2.9 million | $82K |
| General and Operations Managers | 4,590 | 23% | 2.2 million | $100K |
| Retail Salespersons | 5,010 | 19% | 2 million | $29K |
| Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive | 2,210 | 43% | 2 million | $38K |
| Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products | 2,430 | 36% | 1.8 million | $63K |
| Cashiers | 4,480 | 19% | 1.7 million | $25K |
| Receptionists and Information Clerks | 1,180 | 59% | 1.4 million | $30K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers | 1,570 | 40% | 1.3 million | $35K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers | 1,830 | 35% | 1.3 million | $52K |
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. 332 smaller jobs (68,390 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, General1.1 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 Nurses826,008 hours60% of the task within reach
- Operate computers programmed with accounting software to record, store, and analyze information.Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks692,693 hours100% of the task within reach
- Keep periodic balance sheets of amounts and numbers of transactions.Cashiers658,718 hours100% 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, Hand626,746 hours100% of the task within reach
- Maintain knowledge of current sales and promotions, policies regarding payment and exchanges, and security practices.Retail Salespersons607,064 hours50% of the task within reach
- Maintain and update filing, inventory, mailing, and database systems, either manually or using a computer.Office Clerks, General591,661 hours80% 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 Managers586,921 hours40% of the task within reach
- Maintain accurate, detailed reports and records.Registered Nurses565,428 hours100% of the task within reach
- Set prices or credit terms for goods or services, based on forecasts of customer demand.General and Operations Managers561,109 hours100% of the task within reach
Other areas in Louisiana
Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- New Orleans-Metairie, LA445,550 people22% now, 35% by 2028
- Baton Rouge, LA409,690 people21% now, 35% by 2028
- Shreveport-Bossier City, LA162,750 people22% now, 33% by 2028
- Lake Charles, LA101,690 people20% now, 31% by 2028
- Slidell-Mandeville-Covington, LA98,240 people23% now, 34% by 2028
- Monroe, LA87,500 people22% now, 32% by 2028
- Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA83,440 people21% now, 32% by 2028
- Southwest Louisiana nonmetropolitan area80,130 people22% now, 31% 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