Metro area, Texas
Midland, TX
122,180 people work in this area, at mean pay of $71,290 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: 47 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 34%
- 16%
- 50%
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, 1%. 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 58% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 1,440 | 78% | 2.3 million | $52K |
| General and Operations Managers | 4,830 | 23% | 2.3 million | $132K |
| Office Clerks, General | 1,760 | 54% | 2 million | $46K |
| Customer Service Representatives | 1,340 | 64% | 1.8 million | $45K |
| Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel | 1,710 | 43% | 1.5 million | $80K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers | 2,700 | 27% | 1.5 million | $80K |
| Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers | 4,540 | 14% | 1.3 million | $58K |
| Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive | 1,400 | 43% | 1.2 million | $48K |
| Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education | 1,170 | 38% | 927,203 | $64K |
| Retail Salespersons | 2,210 | 19% | 891,780 | $34K |
| Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas | 3,460 | 12% | 878,011 | $49K |
| Industrial Machinery Mechanics | 2,630 | 15% | 842,443 | $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. 282 smaller jobs (47,270 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 93% 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.
- Develop sales presentations or proposals to explain service specifications.Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel730,433 hours100% of the task within reach
- Estimate material or worker requirements to complete jobs.First-Line Supervisors of Construction Trades and Extraction Workers627,361 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 Managers617,610 hours40% of the task within reach
- Set prices or credit terms for goods or services, based on forecasts of customer demand.General and Operations Managers590,448 hours100% of the task within reach
- Prepare staff work schedules and assign specific duties.General and Operations Managers556,328 hours80% 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 Managers515,491 hours59% of the task within reach
- Monitor control panels during pumping operations to ensure that materials are being pumped at the correct pressure, density, rate, and concentration.Wellhead Pumpers508,425 hours100% of the task within reach
- Analyze test results, machine error messages, or information obtained from operators to diagnose equipment problems.Industrial Machinery Mechanics477,457 hours100% of the task within reach
- Operate computers programmed with accounting software to record, store, and analyze information.Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks468,300 hours100% of the task within reach
- Develop or implement electronic maintenance programs or computer information management systems.First-Line Supervisors of Mechanics, Installers, and Repairers440,932 hours96% of the task within reach
Other areas in Texas
Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX4,049,800 people23% now, 39% by 2028
- Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX3,289,720 people22% now, 36% by 2028
- Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX1,293,690 people23% now, 42% by 2028
- San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX1,126,880 people23% now, 37% by 2028
- El Paso, TX339,120 people24% now, 35% by 2028
- McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX296,700 people22% now, 31% by 2028
- North Region of Texas nonmetropolitan area275,670 people21% now, 31% by 2028
- Hill Country Region of Texas nonmetropolitan area200,870 people22% now, 32% 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