Industry group, 3312
Steel Product Manufacturing from Purchased Steel
58,080 people work in this industry in the US, at mean pay of $65,720 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: 21 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 30%
- 8%
- 62%
of the paid hours are within reach now in tasks people already bring to Claude. Another 16% 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, 16%. 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 84% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers | 3,220 | 32% | 2.1 million | $76K |
| Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerks | 1,560 | 53% | 1.7 million | $49K |
| Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic | 4,160 | 13% | 1.1 million | $48K |
| Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products | 1,440 | 36% | 1.1 million | $79K |
| Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers | 2,020 | 24% | 1 million | $54K |
| Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic | 2,220 | 19% | 891,197 | $49K |
| Rolling Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic | 2,840 | 14% | 809,286 | $50K |
| Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks | 570 | 63% | 751,673 | $66K |
| Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers | 2,160 | 16% | 732,327 | $54K |
| Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand | 3,370 | 9% | 630,864 | $45K |
| Industrial Machinery Mechanics | 1,890 | 15% | 605,406 | $68K |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 360 | 78% | 581,069 | $56K |
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. 96 smaller jobs (8,760 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.
- Plan and establish work schedules, assignments, and production sequences to meet production goals.First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers755,492 hours100% of the task within reach
- Read blueprints or job orders to determine product specifications and tooling instructions and to plan operational sequences.Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic682,446 hours100% of the task within reach
- Plan and develop new products and production processes.First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers674,028 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 Workers512,098 hours100% of the task within reach
- Record numbers of units handled or moved, using daily production sheets or work tickets.Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand469,363 hours100% of the task within reach
- Maintain an inventory of materials.Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic450,077 hours100% of the task within reach
- Prepare documents, such as work orders, bills of lading, or shipping orders, to route materials.Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerks415,854 hours100% of the task within reach
- Plan sequences of operations, applying knowledge of physical properties of workpiece materials.Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic381,286 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 Workers380,099 hours100% of the task within reach
- Determine setup procedures and select machine dies and parts, according to specifications.Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic375,919 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