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STRATUSWORKFORCE SCAN
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Industry group, 5419

Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

881,820 people work in this industry in the US, at mean pay of $75,850 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.

now
26%

of the paid hours. Estimate.

$18B

a year: 467 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.

Kinds of work
  • 46%
  • 14%
  • 40%
8%

of the paid hours are within reach now in tasks people already bring to Claude. Another 19% 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

0%25%50%75%100%2027202820292030NowDesk work: 46% of the time
Chosen to Ceiling: the share
DateNow
NowEnd of 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, 23%. Today's estimate: 26%.

0%10%20%30%40%2023202420252026GPT-4, March 2023: 0% within reachGPT-4 Turbo (Nov 2023), November 2023: 0% within reachGPT-4o, May 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.5 Sonnet (June 2024), June 2024: 0% within reacho1-preview, September 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.5 Sonnet (Oct 2024), October 2024: 0% within reacho1, December 2024: 1% within reachClaude 3.7 Sonnet, February 2025: 2% within reacho3, April 2025: 8% within reachGPT-5, August 2025: 10% within reachGemini 3 Pro, November 2025: 13% within reachClaude Opus 4.5, November 2025: 13% within reachGPT-5.2, December 2025: 14% within reachClaude Opus 4.6, February 2026: 15% within reachClaude Mythos Preview (early), April 2026: 23% within reachToday (estimate), September 2026: 26% within reach
Each step is a new best model measured by METR, four in five; the dashed end is today's estimate. Point at a dot for the model.

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 86% of the people.

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. 186 smaller jobs (118,325 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 97% 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.

  1. Perform administrative support tasks, such as proofreading, transcribing handwritten information, or operating calculators or computers to work with pay records, invoices, balance sheets, or other documents.Receptionists and Information Clerks
    17 million hours100% of the task within reach
  2. Write reports, maintain research information, or perform clerical duties.Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers
    14 million hours100% of the task within reach
  3. Perform accounting duties, such as bookkeeping, billing customers for services, or maintaining inventories.Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers
    11 million hours100% of the task within reach
  4. Manipulate and enhance scanned or digital images to create desired effects, using computers and specialized software.Photographers
    10 million hours100% of the task within reach
  5. Maintain laboratory, research, or treatment records, as well as inventories of pharmaceuticals, equipment, or supplies.Veterinary Technologists and Technicians
    10 million hours100% of the task within reach
  6. Research diseases to which animals could be susceptible.Veterinarians
    10 million hours62% of the task within reach
  7. Collect and analyze data on customer demographics, preferences, needs, and buying habits to identify potential markets and factors affecting product demand.Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists
    10 million hours90% of the task within reach
  8. Analyze data to determine answers to questions from customers or members of the public.Receptionists and Information Clerks
    9.7 million hours100% of the task within reach
  9. Perform a variety of office, clerical, or accounting duties, such as reception, billing, bookkeeping, or selling products.Veterinary Technologists and Technicians
    7.9 million hours100% of the task within reach
  10. Record information relating to animal genealogy, feeding schedules, appearance, behavior, or breeding.Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers
    7.7 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