Industry group, 3211
Sawmills and Wood Preservation
84,640 people work in this industry in the US, at mean pay of $52,520 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: 22 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 18%
- 6%
- 76%
of the paid hours are within reach now in tasks people already bring to Claude. Another 11% 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, 12%. Today's estimate: 13%.
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 93% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood | 15,430 | 8% | 2.5 million | $45K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers | 3,350 | 32% | 2.2 million | $74K |
| Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand | 9,690 | 9% | 1.8 million | $35K |
| Office Clerks, General | 1,520 | 54% | 1.7 million | $45K |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 710 | 78% | 1.1 million | $47K |
| Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products | 1,060 | 36% | 789,321 | $78K |
| General and Operations Managers | 1,590 | 23% | 754,046 | $100K |
| Industrial Machinery Mechanics | 2,320 | 15% | 743,143 | $59K |
| Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing | 5,390 | 7% | 728,728 | $46K |
| Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerks | 650 | 53% | 715,208 | $47K |
| Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers | 1,240 | 24% | 621,588 | $50K |
| Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive | 660 | 43% | 584,814 | $42K |
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. 68 smaller jobs (5,560 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.
- Record numbers of units handled or moved, using daily production sheets or work tickets.Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand1.3 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Examine blueprints, drawings, work orders, or patterns to determine equipment set-up or selection details, procedures to be used, or dimensions of final products.Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood1.3 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Select saw blades, types or grades of stock, or cutting procedures to be used, according to work orders or supervisors' instructions.Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood1.2 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 Workers785,993 hours100% of the task within reach
- Determine product specifications and materials, work methods, and machine setup requirements, according to blueprints, oral or written instructions, drawings, or work orders.Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing723,907 hours100% of the task within reach
- Plan and develop new products and production processes.First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers701,240 hours67% of the task within reach
- Read and analyze charts, work orders, production schedules, and other records and reports to determine production requirements and to evaluate current production estimates and outputs.First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers532,773 hours100% of the task within reach
- Read work orders or receive oral instructions to determine work assignments or material or equipment needs.Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand456,616 hours50% of the task within reach
- Analyze test results, machine error messages, or information obtained from operators to diagnose equipment problems.Industrial Machinery Mechanics421,178 hours100% of the task within reach
- Determine standards, budgets, production goals, and rates, based on company policies, equipment and labor availability, and workloads.First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers395,445 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