Industry group, 1152
Support Activities for Animal Production
32,910 people work in this industry in the US, at mean pay of $48,210 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: 7.7 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 19%
- 6%
- 75%
of the paid hours are within reach now in tasks people already bring to Claude. Another 10% 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, 11%. Today's estimate: 12%.
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 29 largest jobs hold 95% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animal Caretakers | 5,820 | 11% | 1.3 million | $36K |
| Office Clerks, General | 1,000 | 54% | 1.1 million | $38K |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 410 | 78% | 661,774 | $42K |
| Farmworkers, Farm, Ranch, and Aquacultural Animals | 11,010 | 2% | 503,818 | $36K |
| General and Operations Managers | 1,060 | 23% | 502,698 | $77K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Workers | 1,150 | 16% | 375,545 | $56K |
| Animal Breeders | 750 | 24% | 371,281 | $48K |
| Self-Enrichment Teachers | 320 | 54% | 358,093 | $43K |
| Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive | 390 | 43% | 345,572 | $46K |
| Customer Service Representatives | 160 | 64% | 214,323 | $52K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Personal Service Workers | 240 | 37% | 185,203 | $45K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers | 220 | 35% | 158,330 | $60K |
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. 41 smaller jobs (1,510 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 93% 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.
- Find homes for stray or unwanted animals.Animal Caretakers1.2 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Select animals to be bred, and semen specimens to be used, according to knowledge of animals, genealogies, traits, and desired offspring characteristics.Animal Breeders400,586 hours100% of the task within reach
- Respond to questions from patrons, and provide information about animals, such as behavior, habitat, breeding habits, or facility activities.Animal Caretakers371,642 hours100% of the task within reach
- Answer telephones and schedule appointments.Animal Caretakers338,230 hours100% of the task within reach
- Maintain growth, feeding, production, and cost records.Farmworkers, Farm, Ranch, and Aquacultural Animals332,520 hours100% of the task within reach
- Compute, record, and proofread data and other information, such as records or reports.Office Clerks, General250,474 hours100% of the task within reach
- Perform both supervisory and management functions, such as accounting, marketing, and personnel work.First-Line Supervisors of Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Workers234,346 hours100% of the task within reach
- Order food for animals, and arrange for its delivery.Farmworkers, Farm, Ranch, and Aquacultural Animals186,184 hours100% of the task within reach
- Determine plant growing conditions, such as greenhouses, hydroponics, or natural settings, and set planting and care schedules.Farmers, Ranchers, and Other Agricultural Managers161,843 hours99% of the task within reach
- Design new equipment to aid in the repair or maintenance of machines, mechanical equipment, or building structures.Maintenance and Repair Workers, General143,421 hours70% 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