Industry group, 8123
Drycleaning and Laundry Services
258,640 people work in this industry in the US, at mean pay of $42,830 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: 86 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 20%
- 7%
- 73%
of the paid hours are within reach now in tasks people already bring to Claude. Another 12% 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, 3%. 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 31 largest jobs hold 95% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Counter and Rental Clerks | 17,550 | 53% | 19 million | $35K |
| Customer Service Representatives | 8,280 | 64% | 11 million | $35K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers | 9,440 | 32% | 6.3 million | $50K |
| Driver/Sales Workers | 23,050 | 13% | 6 million | $48K |
| Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel | 6,170 | 43% | 5.5 million | $52K |
| Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Workers | 96,620 | 2% | 4.6 million | $35K |
| General and Operations Managers | 7,430 | 23% | 3.5 million | $79K |
| Office Clerks, General | 2,410 | 54% | 2.7 million | $44K |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 1,580 | 78% | 2.6 million | $48K |
| Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerks | 1,950 | 53% | 2.1 million | $35K |
| Light Truck Drivers | 6,430 | 11% | 1.5 million | $43K |
| Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers | 2,700 | 24% | 1.4 million | $35K |
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. 67 smaller jobs (12,127 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 99% 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.
- Determine spotting procedures and proper solvents, based on fabric and stain types.Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Workers4.7 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Record sales or delivery information on daily sales or delivery record.Driver/Sales Workers2.9 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Prepare rental forms, obtaining customer signature and other information, such as required licenses.Counter and Rental Clerks2.9 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Develop sales presentations or proposals to explain service specifications.Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel2.6 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Receive orders for services, such as rentals, repairs, dry cleaning, and storage.Counter and Rental Clerks2.5 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Compute charges for merchandise or services and receive payments.Counter and Rental Clerks2.5 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Answer telephones to provide information and receive orders.Counter and Rental Clerks2.4 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Recommend and provide advice on a wide variety of products and services.Counter and Rental Clerks2.3 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Keep records of transactions and of the number of customers entering an establishment.Counter and Rental Clerks2.2 million 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 Workers2.2 million 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