Industry group, 3151
Apparel Knitting Mills
5,960 people work in this industry in the US, at mean pay of $42,110 a year (BLS, May 2025). 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: 1.7 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 22%
- 4%
- 73%
of the paid hours are within reach now in tasks people already bring to Claude. Another 13% 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 industry'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, 15%. Today's estimate: 16%.
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 19 largest jobs hold 96% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Textile Knitting and Weaving Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders | 1,450 | 9% | 280,488 | $36K |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 130 | 78% | 209,831 | $56K |
| Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers | 410 | 24% | 205,525 | $36K |
| Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerks | 140 | 53% | 154,045 | $36K |
| Industrial Machinery Mechanics | 390 | 15% | 124,925 | $41K |
| Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks | 90 | 63% | 118,685 | $46K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers | 170 | 32% | 112,799 | $49K |
| Office Clerks, General | 80 | 54% | 90,355 | $39K |
| Packers and Packagers, Hand | 600 | 7% | 88,608 | $28K |
| Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand | 240 | 9% | 44,928 | $33K |
| Textile Bleaching and Dyeing Machine Operators and Tenders | 150 | 11% | 34,320 | $37K |
| General and Operations Managers | 60 | 23% | 28,455 | $115K |
People: BLS counts for this industry, May 2025. Pay here: the median paid for the job in this industry, else its mean, else the national median. 8 smaller jobs (220 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 84% of the industry'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 industry, on the chosen pace and reliability.
- Program electronic equipment.Textile Knitting and Weaving Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders120,005 hours100% of the task within reach
- Study guides, loom patterns, samples, charts, or specification sheets, or confer with supervisors or engineering staff to determine setup requirements.Textile Knitting and Weaving Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders95,517 hours100% of the task within reach
- Record product, packaging, and order information on specified forms and records.Packers and Packagers, Hand88,795 hours100% of the task within reach
- Write test or inspection reports describing results, recommendations, or needed repairs.Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers72,607 hours100% of the task within reach
- Analyze test results, machine error messages, or information obtained from operators to diagnose equipment problems.Industrial Machinery Mechanics70,802 hours100% of the task within reach
- Notify supervisors or repair staff of mechanical malfunctions.Textile Knitting and Weaving Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders42,737 hours100% of the task within reach
- Operate computers programmed with accounting software to record, store, and analyze information.Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks42,277 hours100% of the task within reach
- Record information about work completed and machine settings.Textile Knitting and Weaving Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders39,902 hours100% of the task within reach
- Plan and establish work schedules, assignments, and production sequences to meet production goals.First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers39,886 hours100% of the task within reach
- Prepare documents, such as work orders, bills of lading, or shipping orders, to route materials.Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerks37,320 hours100% of the task within reach
Scan a typical company in this industry
The industry's largest jobs, in the proportions BLS counts across the whole industry, at the pay it pays, run through the company scan. A starting point before you have a roster, or a benchmark for the one you have.
Next to this industry
Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
How it is built: BLS counts the people in each job in this industry; each job's tasks and their lengths give its share within reach at a date; the industry'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