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Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers

Landscape or maintain grounds of property using hand or power tools or equipment. Workers typically perform a variety of tasks, which may include any combination of the following: sod laying, mowing, trimming, planting, watering, fertilizing, digging, raking, sprinkler installation, and installation of mortarless segmental concrete masonry wall units.

952,640 people do this job in the US. $39,150 a year.

now
0%

of the working time. Estimate.

Kinds of work
  • 0%
  • 0%
  • 100%
0%

Measured, from Anthropic's usage data (2025). Counts help on part of a task.

Half the desk work within reach
No desk work

On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.

Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030

0%25%50%75%100%2027202820292030NowDesk work: 0% of the time
Chosen to Ceiling: the share
DateNow
NowEnd of 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, 0%. Today's estimate: 0%.

0%5%10%2023202420252026GPT-4, March 2023: 0% within reachGPT-4 Turbo (Nov 2023), November 2023: 0% within reachGPT-4o, May 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.5 Sonnet (June 2024), June 2024: 0% within reacho1-preview, September 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.5 Sonnet (Oct 2024), October 2024: 0% within reacho1, December 2024: 0% within reachClaude 3.7 Sonnet, February 2025: 0% within reacho3, April 2025: 0% within reachGPT-5, August 2025: 0% within reachGemini 3 Pro, November 2025: 0% within reachClaude Opus 4.5, November 2025: 0% within reachGPT-5.2, December 2025: 0% within reachClaude Opus 4.6, February 2026: 0% within reachClaude Mythos Preview (early), April 2026: 0% within reachToday (estimate), September 2026: 0% within reach
Each step is a new best model measured by METR, four in five; the dashed end is today's estimate. Point at a dot for the model.

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 . 19 tasks from .

TaskKind
Mow or edge lawns, using power mowers or edgers.Done hourly or more by most who do it. 20%38 min17 min to 1.7 hStays with people
Prune or trim trees, shrubs, or hedges, using shears, pruners, or chain saws.Done hourly or more by most who do it. 15%50 min17 min to 3.3 hStays with people
Care for established lawns by mulching, aerating, weeding, grubbing, removing thatch, or trimming or edging around flower beds, walks, or walls.Done daily by most who do it.12%1.3 h25 min to 3.3 hStays with people
Operate vehicles or powered equipment, such as mowers, tractors, twin-axle vehicles, snow blowers, chainsaws, electric clippers, sod cutters, or pruning saws.Done daily by most who do it. 10%50 min25 min to 2.5 hStays with people
Use hand tools, such as shovels, rakes, pruning saws, saws, hedge or brush trimmers, or axes.Done daily by most who do it. 8%38 min17 min to 1.3 hStays with people
Rake, mulch, and compost leaves.Done more than yearly by most who do it.7%1.7 h25 min to 3.3 hStays with people
Trim or pick flowers and clean flower beds.Done daily by most who do it. 6%50 min25 min to 2.5 hStays with people
Provide proper upkeep of sidewalks, driveways, parking lots, fountains, planters, burial sites, or other grounds features.Done daily by most who do it.6%1.3 h25 min to 2.5 hStays with people
Care for natural turf fields, making sure the underlying soil has the required composition to allow proper drainage and to support the grasses.Done daily by most who do it.6%3.3 h50 min to 6.7 hStays with people
Gather and remove litter.Done daily by most who do it. 3%25 min13 min to 50 minStays with people
Shovel snow from walks, driveways, or parking lots, and spread salt in those areas.Done more than yearly by most who do it.2%1.3 h25 min to 2.5 hStays with people
Follow planned landscaping designs to determine where to lay sod, sow grass, or plant flowers or foliage.Done yearly or less by most who do it.1%1.7 h25 min to 3.3 hStays 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.

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).