Metro area, Virginia
Staunton-Stuarts Draft, VA
51,640 people work in this area, at mean pay of $57,310 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: 19 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 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, 19%. 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 61% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Office Clerks, General | 900 | 54% | 1 million | $44K |
| Registered Nurses | 1,500 | 28% | 867,362 | $92K |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 400 | 78% | 645,633 | $49K |
| Retail Salespersons | 1,520 | 19% | 613,351 | $33K |
| Customer Service Representatives | 450 | 64% | 602,784 | $41K |
| Cashiers | 1,330 | 19% | 511,784 | $30K |
| Stockers and Order Fillers | 1,240 | 19% | 490,048 | $37K |
| General and Operations Managers | 980 | 23% | 464,758 | $96K |
| Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerks | 380 | 53% | 418,122 | $45K |
| Receptionists and Information Clerks | 300 | 59% | 366,912 | $36K |
| Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand | 1,880 | 9% | 351,936 | $47K |
| Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education | 560 | 30% | 347,111 | $61K |
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. 188 smaller jobs (16,900 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 83% 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.
- Record numbers of units handled or moved, using daily production sheets or work tickets.Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand261,840 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 Nurses251,321 hours60% of the task within reach
- Compute, record, and proofread data and other information, such as records or reports.Office Clerks, General225,426 hours100% of the task within reach
- Keep periodic balance sheets of amounts and numbers of transactions.Cashiers195,557 hours100% of the task within reach
- Maintain knowledge of current sales and promotions, policies regarding payment and exchanges, and security practices.Retail Salespersons184,179 hours50% of the task within reach
- Maintain accurate, detailed reports and records.Registered Nurses172,037 hours100% of the task within reach
- Attend training classes to maintain certification licensure, keep abreast of new developments in the field, or maintain existing knowledge.A job in this area158,574 hours99% of the task within reach
- Compile and maintain non-monetary reports and records.Cashiers139,344 hours100% of the task within reach
- Operate computers programmed with accounting software to record, store, and analyze information.Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks130,083 hours100% of the task within reach
- Maintain and update filing, inventory, mailing, and database systems, either manually or using a computer.Office Clerks, General125,588 hours80% of the task within reach
Other areas in Virginia
Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC763,060 people22% now, 36% by 2028
- Richmond, VA660,350 people23% now, 38% by 2028
- Roanoke, VA153,980 people23% now, 35% by 2028
- Southwest Virginia nonmetropolitan area116,480 people22% now, 31% by 2028
- Charlottesville, VA114,780 people23% now, 39% by 2028
- Southside Virginia nonmetropolitan area103,030 people21% now, 30% by 2028
- Lynchburg, VA97,190 people22% now, 33% by 2028
- Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford, VA74,070 people21% now, 33% 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