Industry group, 4832
Inland Water Transportation
28,430 people work in this industry in the US, at mean pay of $87,340 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: 6 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 22%
- 4%
- 75%
of the paid hours are within reach now in tasks people already bring to Claude. Another 9% 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, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 9%. Today's estimate: 11%.
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 24 largest jobs hold 95% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels | 9,970 | 5% | 1.1 million | $106K |
| Sailors and Marine Oilers | 8,960 | 4% | 782,752 | $50K |
| Office Clerks, General | 430 | 54% | 485,659 | $52K |
| Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance | 270 | 80% | 447,034 | $53K |
| Ship Engineers | 1,430 | 9% | 270,671 | $121K |
| General and Operations Managers | 560 | 23% | 265,576 | $135K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Material-Moving Machine and Vehicle Operators | 213 | 51% | 225,065 | $63K |
| Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders | 550 | 20% | 224,224 | $68K |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 130 | 78% | 209,831 | $49K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Helpers, Laborers, and Material Movers, Hand | 213 | 44% | 194,938 | $63K |
| Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive | 210 | 43% | 186,077 | $50K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Passenger Attendants | 213 | 37% | 162,596 | $63K |
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. 38 smaller jobs (1,290 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 95% 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.
- Maintain government-issued certifications, as required.Sailors and Marine Oilers3.3 million hours95% of the task within reach
- Maintain records of daily activities, personnel reports, ship positions and movements, ports of call, weather and sea conditions, pollution control efforts, or cargo or passenger status.Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels582,104 hours100% of the task within reach
- Learn to operate new technology systems and procedures through instruction, simulators, or models.Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels526,465 hours98% of the task within reach
- Arrange for ships to be fueled, restocked with supplies, or repaired.Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels332,215 hours100% of the task within reach
- Monitor product movement to and from storage tanks, coordinating activities with other workers to ensure constant product flow.Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders173,728 hours100% of the task within reach
- Record data in ships' logs, such as weather conditions or distances traveled.Sailors and Marine Oilers170,713 hours100% of the task within reach
- Prepare daily work and run schedules.Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance165,469 hours100% of the task within reach
- Oversee all communications within specifically assigned territories.Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance112,138 hours100% of the task within reach
- Compute, record, and proofread data and other information, such as records or reports.Office Clerks, General107,704 hours100% of the task within reach
- Act as a liaison between a ship's captain and shore personnel to ensure that schedules and budgets are maintained and that the ship is operated safely and efficiently.Ship Engineers106,900 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