Butchers and Meat Cutters
Cut, trim, or prepare consumer-sized portions of meat for use or sale in retail establishments.
136,430 people do this job in the US. $40,140 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 4%
- 2%
- 94%
Measured, from Anthropic's usage data (2025). Counts help on part of a task.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 4.4 h long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 4%. Today's estimate: 4%.
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.
The tasks
Sorted by . 11 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prepare and place meat cuts and products in display counter to appear attractive and catch the shopper's eye.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 25% | 38 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Supervise other butchers or meat cutters.Done daily by most who do it. | 21% | 1.7 h25 min to 4.2 h | Stays with people | |
| Cut, trim, bone, tie, and grind meats, such as beef, pork, poultry, and fish, to prepare in cooking form.Done daily by most who do it. | 20% | 38 min17 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Cure, smoke, tenderize, and preserve meat.Done daily by most who do it. | 11% | 3.3 h50 min to 1 work day | Stays with people | |
| Prepare special cuts of meat ordered by customers.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 6% | 21 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Receive, inspect, and store meat upon delivery to ensure meat quality.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 33 min17 min to 1.1 h | Stays with people | |
| Shape, lace, and tie roasts, using boning knife, skewer, and twine.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 17 min8 min to 33 min | Stays with people | |
| Estimate requirements and order or requisition meat supplies to maintain inventories.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Wrap, weigh, label, and price cuts of meat.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 2% | 4 min3 min to 8 min | Stays with people | |
| Negotiate with representatives from supply companies to determine order details.Done daily by most who do it. | 2% | 38 min17 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Record quantity of meat received and issued to cooks or keep records of meat sales.Done daily by most who do it. | 2% | 17 min8 min to 38 min | 100%Half by now |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).