Graders and Sorters, Agricultural Products
Grade, sort, or classify unprocessed food and other agricultural products by size, weight, color, or condition.
25,180 people do this job in the US. $35,730 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 7%
- 0%
- 93%
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, 7%. Today's estimate: 7%.
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 . 5 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade and sort products according to factors such as color, species, length, width, appearance, feel, smell, and quality to ensure correct processing and usage.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 42% | 25 min8 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Discard inferior or defective products or foreign matter, and place acceptable products in containers for further processing.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 22% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | Stays with people | |
| Place products in containers according to grade and mark grades on containers.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 17% | 13 min4 min to 21 min | Stays with people | |
| Weigh products or estimate their weight, visually or by feel.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 12% | 8 min3 min to 15 min | Stays with people | |
| Record grade or identification numbers on tags or on shipping, receiving, or sales sheets.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 7% | 10 min4 min to 17 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.
- Packers and Packagers, Hand7% now, 7% by 2028
- Food and Tobacco Roasting, Baking, and Drying Machine Operators and Tenders8% now, 8% by 2028
- Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers0% now, 0% by 2028
- Food Batchmakers13% now, 23% by 2028
- Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders2% now, 2% by 2028
- Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders7% now, 7% 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).