Nonmetro area, Iowa
Southwest Iowa nonmetropolitan area
73,240 people work in this area, at mean pay of $53,820 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: 29 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 31%
- 18%
- 52%
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, 19%. Today's estimate: 21%.
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 56% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Office Clerks, General | 1,180 | 54% | 1.3 million | $41K |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 800 | 78% | 1.3 million | $47K |
| Cashiers | 2,940 | 19% | 1.1 million | $28K |
| Registered Nurses | 1,890 | 28% | 1.1 million | $79K |
| Customer Service Representatives | 800 | 64% | 1.1 million | $42K |
| Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants | 470 | 81% | 788,924 | $39K |
| Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education | 1,210 | 30% | 750,007 | $60K |
| General and Operations Managers | 1,460 | 23% | 692,395 | $80K |
| Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers | 2,160 | 14% | 615,514 | $58K |
| Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive | 680 | 43% | 602,536 | $42K |
| Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education | 850 | 32% | 567,529 | $61K |
| Retail Salespersons | 1,370 | 19% | 552,823 | $30K |
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. 258 smaller jobs (29,620 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 91% 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.
- Keep periodic balance sheets of amounts and numbers of transactions.Cashiers432,283 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 Nurses316,664 hours60% of the task within reach
- Compile and maintain non-monetary reports and records.Cashiers308,023 hours100% of the task within reach
- Compute, record, and proofread data and other information, such as records or reports.Office Clerks, General295,559 hours100% of the task within reach
- Operate computers programmed with accounting software to record, store, and analyze information.Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks260,166 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, Hand221,450 hours100% of the task within reach
- Maintain accurate, detailed reports and records.Registered Nurses216,766 hours100% of the task within reach
- Calculate total payments received during a time period, and reconcile this with total sales.Cashiers204,657 hours70% of the task within reach
- Prepare objectives and outlines for courses of study, following curriculum guidelines or requirements of states and schools.Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education189,917 hours100% of the task within reach
- Perform bookkeeping duties, such as credits or collections, preparing and sending financial statements or bills, and keeping financial records.Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants188,266 hours100% of the task within reach
Other 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 people23% now, 39% by 2028
- Southeast Iowa nonmetropolitan area200,390 people20% now, 30% by 2028
- Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL180,450 people22% now, 35% by 2028
- Northwest Iowa nonmetropolitan area145,960 people20% now, 29% by 2028
- Cedar Rapids, IA139,260 people22% now, 35% by 2028
- Northeast Iowa nonmetropolitan area99,370 people21% now, 31% by 2028
- Iowa City, IA93,760 people23% now, 36% by 2028
- Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA84,260 people21% 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