Industry group, 3212
Veneer, Plywood, and Engineered Wood Product Manufacturing
81,190 people work in this industry in the US, at mean pay of $54,340 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: 24 million hours at what they cost. Not a forecast of savings.
- 23%
- 12%
- 65%
of the paid hours are within reach now in tasks people already bring to Claude. Another 13% 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, 13%. Today's estimate: 15%.
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 91% of the people.
| People | Pay here | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Assemblers | 15,570 | 10% | 3.4 million | $41K |
| First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers | 3,640 | 32% | 2.4 million | $65K |
| Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products | 1,920 | 36% | 1.4 million | $64K |
| Office Clerks, General | 930 | 54% | 1.1 million | $47K |
| Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing | 7,690 | 7% | 1 million | $44K |
| Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand | 5,380 | 9% | 1 million | $39K |
| Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerks | 900 | 53% | 990,288 | $49K |
| Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood | 4,900 | 8% | 805,168 | $44K |
| Architectural and Civil Drafters | 1,560 | 23% | 733,332 | $62K |
| Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks | 540 | 63% | 712,111 | $59K |
| Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks | 420 | 78% | 677,914 | $53K |
| General and Operations Managers | 1,420 | 23% | 673,425 | $113K |
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. 79 smaller jobs (6,710 people) count in every total but are not listed. Task data covers 95% 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.
- Review work orders and blueprints to ensure work is performed according to specifications.Team Assemblers1.4 million hours50% of the task within reach
- Complete production reports to communicate team production level to management.Team Assemblers1.1 million 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 Sawing1 million hours100% of the task within reach
- Determine work assignments and procedures.Team Assemblers994,562 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 Workers854,035 hours100% of the task within reach
- Plan and develop new products and production processes.First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers761,945 hours67% 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, Hand749,309 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 Workers578,894 hours100% of the task within reach
- Produce drawings, using computer-assisted drafting systems (CAD) or drafting machines, or by hand, using compasses, dividers, protractors, triangles, and other drafting devices.Architectural and Civil Drafters470,487 hours100% of the task within reach
- Draw rough and detailed scale plans for foundations, buildings, and structures, based on preliminary concepts, sketches, engineering calculations, specification sheets, and other data.Architectural and Civil Drafters467,219 hours99% 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