Nonmetro area, North Carolina
Western North Carolina nonmetropolitan area
253,210 people work in this area, at mean pay of $52,080 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: 106 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 33%
- 16%
- 51%
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 51% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 2,710 | 78% | 4.4 million | $45K |
| Customer Service Representatives | 3,150 | 64% | 4.2 million | $37K |
| Office Clerks, General | 3,710 | 54% | 4.2 million | $37K |
| Medical Secretaries and Administrative Assistants | 2,340 | 81% | 3.9 million | $39K |
| Retail Salespersons | 8,030 | 19% | 3.2 million | $30K |
| Cashiers | 7,720 | 19% | 3 million | $29K |
| Registered Nurses | 4,760 | 28% | 2.8 million | $82K |
| Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive | 2,900 | 43% | 2.6 million | $41K |
| Stockers and Order Fillers | 5,500 | 19% | 2.2 million | $36K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers | 2,570 | 40% | 2.2 million | $42K |
| Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education | 3,210 | 30% | 2 million | $50K |
| General and Operations Managers | 3,360 | 23% | 1.6 million | $77K |
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. 462 smaller jobs (119,030 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 96% 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.Cashiers1.1 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Maintain knowledge of current sales and promotions, policies regarding payment and exchanges, and security practices.Retail Salespersons972,998 hours50% 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 Assistants937,325 hours100% of the task within reach
- Compute, record, and proofread data and other information, such as records or reports.Office Clerks, General929,257 hours100% of the task within reach
- Operate computers programmed with accounting software to record, store, and analyze information.Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks881,314 hours100% of the task within reach
- Compile and maintain non-monetary reports and records.Cashiers808,821 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 Nurses797,525 hours60% 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 area731,879 hours99% 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 Representatives712,923 hours100% of the task within reach
- Complete contract forms, prepare change of address records, or issue service discontinuance orders, using computers.Customer Service Representatives657,559 hours100% of the task within reach
Other areas in North Carolina
Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC1,358,370 people23% now, 39% by 2028
- Raleigh-Cary, NC743,120 people23% now, 41% by 2028
- Greensboro-High Point, NC365,410 people22% now, 34% by 2028
- Durham-Chapel Hill, NC344,020 people23% now, 43% by 2028
- Winston-Salem, NC271,980 people22% now, 34% by 2028
- Eastern North Carolina nonmetropolitan area264,470 people21% now, 31% by 2028
- Central North Carolina nonmetropolitan area238,010 people21% now, 31% by 2028
- Wilmington, NC191,280 people22% now, 34% 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