Industry group, 3113
Sugar and Confectionery Product Manufacturing
83,910 people work in this industry in the US, at mean pay of $55,310 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: 27 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 27%
- 9%
- 64%
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, 2%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 14%. Today's estimate: 16%.
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 88% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food Batchmakers | 19,690 | 13% | 5.2 million | $42K |
| Retail Salespersons | 6,440 | 19% | 2.6 million | $34K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers | 3,210 | 32% | 2.1 million | $65K |
| Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerks | 1,360 | 53% | 1.5 million | $47K |
| Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks | 800 | 63% | 1.1 million | $65K |
| Cashiers | 2,280 | 19% | 877,344 | $32K |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 490 | 78% | 790,900 | $46K |
| Customer Service Representatives | 520 | 64% | 696,550 | $38K |
| Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products | 890 | 36% | 662,731 | $65K |
| Office Clerks, General | 580 | 54% | 655,076 | $46K |
| Industrial Machinery Mechanics | 2,010 | 15% | 643,844 | $71K |
| General and Operations Managers | 1,350 | 23% | 640,228 | $93K |
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. 107 smaller jobs (9,900 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 96% 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.
- Formulate or modify recipes for specific kinds of food products.Food Batchmakers5.6 million hours99% of the task within reach
- Determine mixing sequences, based on knowledge of temperature effects and of the solubility of specific ingredients.Food Batchmakers1.6 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Record production and test data for each food product batch, such as the ingredients used, temperature, test results, and time cycle.Food Batchmakers1.4 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Give directions to other workers who are assisting in the batchmaking process.Food Batchmakers809,275 hours100% of the task within reach
- Maintain knowledge of current sales and promotions, policies regarding payment and exchanges, and security practices.Retail Salespersons780,337 hours50% 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 Workers753,146 hours100% of the task within reach
- Plan and develop new products and production processes.First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers671,935 hours67% of the task within reach
- Record product, packaging, and order information on specified forms and records.Packers and Packagers, Hand617,127 hours100% 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 Workers510,508 hours100% of the task within reach
- Maintain records related to sales.Retail Salespersons415,653 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.
- Animal Slaughtering and Processing557,460 people9% now, 14% by 2028
- Bakeries and Tortilla Manufacturing350,710 people14% now, 26% by 2028
- Other Food Manufacturing274,060 people15% now, 25% by 2028
- Fruit and Vegetable Preserving and Specialty Food Manufacturing172,340 people14% now, 23% by 2028
- Dairy Product Manufacturing167,480 people15% now, 25% by 2028
- Animal Food Manufacturing76,620 people18% now, 28% by 2028
- Grain and Oilseed Milling66,880 people16% now, 27% by 2028
- Seafood Product Preparation and Packaging29,030 people13% now, 20% by 2028
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