Etchers and Engravers
Engrave or etch metal, wood, rubber, or other materials. Includes such workers as etcher-circuit processors, pantograph engravers, and silk screen etchers.
7,750 people do this job in the US. $43,310 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 21%
- 0%
- 79%
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, 2%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 20%. Today's estimate: 21%.
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 . 26 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engrave and print patterns, designs, etchings, trademarks, or lettering onto flat or curved surfaces of a wide variety of metal, glass, plastic, or paper items, using hand tools or hand-held power tools.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 11% | 50 min17 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Use computer software to design patterns for engraving.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 10% | 38 min17 min to 1.7 h | 98%Half by now | |
| Print proofs or examine designs to verify accuracy of engraving, and rework engraving as required.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 7% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Expose workpieces to acid to develop etch patterns such as designs, lettering, or figures.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 7% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Examine sketches, diagrams, samples, blueprints, or photographs to decide how designs are to be etched, cut, or engraved onto workpieces.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 7% | 17 min8 min to 38 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Prepare workpieces for etching or engraving by cutting, sanding, cleaning, polishing, or treating them with wax, acid resist, lime, etching powder, or light-sensitive enamel.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 7% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Inspect etched work for depth of etching, uniformity, and defects, using calibrated microscopes, gauges, fingers, or magnifying lenses.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 6% | 13 min4 min to 21 min | Stays with people | |
| Determine machine settings, and move bars or levers to reproduce designs on rollers or plates.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 5% | 17 min8 min to 29 min | Stays with people | |
| Guide stylus over template, causing cutting tool to duplicate design or letters on workpiece.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 5% | 33 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Sketch, trace, or scribe layout lines and designs on workpieces, plates, dies, or rollers, using compasses, scribers, gravers, or pencils.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 4% | 25 min8 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Measure and compute dimensions of lettering, designs, or patterns to be engraved.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 4% | 13 min7 min to 25 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Examine engraving for quality of cut, burrs, rough spots, and irregular or incomplete engraving.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 3% | 13 min4 min to 21 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.
- Painting, Coating, and Decorating Workers0% now, 0% by 2028
- Patternmakers, Metal and Plastic16% now, 35% by 2028
- Grinding and Polishing Workers, Hand11% now, 11% by 2028
- Tool and Die Makers13% now, 35% by 2028
- Molders, Shapers, and Casters, Except Metal and Plastic0% now, 0% by 2028
- Stone Cutters and Carvers, Manufacturing5% now, 5% 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).