Industry group, 3254
Pharmaceutical and Medicine Manufacturing
348,780 people work in this industry in the US, at mean pay of $91,390 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: 128 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 45%
- 11%
- 44%
of the paid hours are within reach now in tasks people already bring to Claude. Another 15% 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, 1%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 15%. Today's estimate: 18%.
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 76% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chemical Equipment Operators and Tenders | 32,560 | 18% | 12 million | $50K |
| Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers | 17,440 | 24% | 8.7 million | $59K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers | 12,570 | 32% | 8.3 million | $83K |
| Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerks | 5,140 | 53% | 5.7 million | $46K |
| Customer Service Representatives | 4,120 | 64% | 5.5 million | $50K |
| Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks | 3,740 | 63% | 4.9 million | $63K |
| Compliance Officers | 5,380 | 37% | 4.1 million | $97K |
| Industrial Production Managers | 8,080 | 24% | 4.1 million | $139K |
| Industrial Engineers | 11,710 | 16% | 3.9 million | $104K |
| Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products | 3,920 | 47% | 3.8 million | $122K |
| General and Operations Managers | 7,370 | 23% | 3.5 million | $173K |
| Chemists | 13,610 | 10% | 2.9 million | $80K |
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. 179 smaller jobs (81,240 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 98% 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.
- Develop, improve, or customize products, equipment, formulas, processes, or analytical methods.Chemists6.9 million hours85% of the task within reach
- Write technical papers or reports or prepare standards and specifications for processes, facilities, products, or tests.Chemists3.9 million hours99% of the task within reach
- Plan and establish sequence of operations to fabricate and assemble parts or products and to promote efficient utilization.Industrial Engineers3.9 million hours99% of the task within reach
- Compile and analyze test information to determine process or equipment operating efficiency or to diagnose malfunctions.Chemists3.8 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Verify that all firm and regulatory policies and procedures have been documented, implemented, and communicated.Compliance Officers3.2 million hours94% of the task within reach
- Write test or inspection reports describing results, recommendations, or needed repairs.Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers3.1 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Estimate materials required for production and manufacturing of products.Chemical Equipment Operators and Tenders3 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Recommend methods for improving utilization of personnel, material, and utilities.Industrial Engineers3 million hours99% 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 Workers2.9 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Adjust controls to regulate temperature, pressure, feed, or flow of liquids or gases and times of prescribed reactions, according to knowledge of equipment and processes.Chemical Equipment Operators and Tenders2.9 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