Cleaning, Washing, and Metal Pickling Equipment Operators and Tenders
Operate or tend machines to wash or clean products, such as barrels or kegs, glass items, tin plate, food, pulp, coal, plastic, or rubber, to remove impurities.
14,760 people do this job in the US. $43,530 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 5%
- 0%
- 95%
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, 3%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 5%. Today's estimate: 5%.
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 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operate or tend machines to wash and remove impurities from items such as barrels or kegs, glass products, tin plate surfaces, dried fruit, pulp, animal stock, coal, manufactured articles, plastic, or rubber.Done daily by most who do it. | 26% | 38 min13 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Drain, clean, and refill machines or tanks at designated intervals, using cleaning solutions or water.Done daily by most who do it. | 14% | 50 min25 min to 2.1 h | Stays with people | |
| Set controls to regulate temperature and length of cycles, and start conveyors, pumps, agitators, and machines.Done daily by most who do it. | 10% | 17 min8 min to 33 min | Stays with people | |
| Examine and inspect machines to detect malfunctions.Done daily by most who do it. | 9% | 21 min8 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Observe machine operations, gauges, or thermometers, and adjust controls to maintain specified conditions.Done daily by most who do it. | 9% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | Stays with people | |
| Load machines with objects to be processed and unload them after cleaning, placing them on conveyors or racks.Done daily by most who do it. | 8% | 21 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Draw samples for laboratory analysis, or test solutions for conformance to specifications, such as acidity or specific gravity.Done daily by most who do it. | 7% | 17 min7 min to 29 min | Stays with people | |
| Adjust, clean, and lubricate mechanical parts of machines, using hand tools and grease guns.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 33 min13 min to 1.1 h | Stays with people | |
| Record gauge readings, materials used, processing times, or test results in production logs.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 8 min4 min to 17 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Measure, weigh, or mix cleaning solutions, using measuring tanks, calibrated rods or suction tubes.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 17 min8 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Add specified amounts of chemicals to equipment at required times to maintain solution levels and concentrations.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | Stays with people |
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.
- Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders6% now, 6% by 2028
- Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders5% now, 5% by 2028
- Furnace, Kiln, Oven, Drier, and Kettle Operators and Tenders10% now, 10% by 2028
- Textile Bleaching and Dyeing Machine Operators and Tenders11% now, 11% by 2028
- Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Workers2% now, 2% by 2028
- Cleaners of Vehicles and Equipment3% now, 3% by 2028
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).