Layout Workers, Metal and Plastic
In short: today's best AI models could do about 13% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about the same by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 87% of the time, stays with people.
Lay out reference points and dimensions on metal or plastic stock or workpieces, such as sheets, plates, tubes, structural shapes, castings, or machine parts, for further processing. Includes shipfitters.
5,970 people do this job in the US. $63,870 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on5 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people35 h
Layout Workers, Metal and Plastic, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 5 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 35 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Plan and develop layouts from blueprints and templates, applying knowledge of trigonometry, design, effects of heat, and properties of metals (about 5 h); Add dimensional details to blueprints or drawings made by other workers (under an hour).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 13%
- 0%
- 87%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days 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, 8%. Today's estimate: 13%.
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.
Measured use over time
Of the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled and tied to a work task, no reportable share went to this job's tasks in May 2026; 0 of its 14 tasks showed up. Within each of Anthropic's methods, never across a change: 0.003% to 0.002% (released February and March 2025).
Each release
| Conversations | Share | Rank | Tasks seen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released February 2025 | 0.003% | 654 of 708 | 1 of 14 |
| Released March 2025 | 0.002% | 669 of 703 | 1 of 14 |
| The week of Aug 4, 2025 (released September 2025) | none | n/a | 0 of 14 |
| The week of Nov 13, 2025 (released January 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 14 |
| The week of Feb 5, 2026 (released March 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 14 |
| April 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 14 |
| May 2026 (released June 2026) | none | n/a | 0 of 14 |
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates 79% of this job's working time as physical work. For 76% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 76% in a purpose-built cell. 0.76 of 3, the 237th highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 21%
- No robot shown 4%
- In a purpose-built cell 76%
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 14 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lay out and fabricate metal structural parts such as plates, bulkheads, and frames.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Voortman V704 CNC beam layout marking machine (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 27% | 3.3 h1.3 h to 1 work day | Stays with people | |
| Fit and align fabricated parts to be welded or assembled.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Zeman SBA Compact+ steel beam assembler (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 17% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Plan and develop layouts from blueprints and templates, applying knowledge of trigonometry, design, effects of heat, and properties of metals.Done daily by most who do it. | 12% | 1.7 h50 min to 5 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Mark curves, lines, holes, dimensions, and welding symbols onto workpieces, using scribes, soapstones, punches, and hand drills.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Voortman V704 beam layout marking machine (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 8% | 38 min13 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Install doors, hatches, brackets, and clips.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Zeman Steel Beam Assembler (SBA) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 7% | 1.7 h38 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Brace parts in position within hulls or ships for riveting or welding.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 1.1 h25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Plan locations and sequences of cutting, drilling, bending, rolling, punching, and welding operations, using compasses, protractors, dividers, and rules.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 50 min25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Design and prepare templates of wood, paper, or metal.Done more than yearly by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Eagle fiber laser cutting machines with Eagle automation (pallet changers, loading towers, sorting systems) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 1.7 h38 min to 4.2 h | Stays with people | |
| Compute layout dimensions, and determine and mark reference points on metal stock or workpieces for further processing, such as welding and assembly.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Peddinghaus PeddiWriter (PW-1250) automatic layout marking machine (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 38 min17 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Lift and position workpieces in relation to surface plates, manually or with hoists, and using parallel blocks and angle plates.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, ZEISS MultiLoad / ZEISS Integration Series CMM loading (Carl Zeiss Industrielle Messtechnik) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Locate center lines and verify template positions, using measuring instruments such as gauge blocks, height gauges, and dial indicators.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Renishaw machine tool probes (OMP/RMP series) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 29 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Inspect machined parts to verify conformance to specifications.Done more than monthly by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Q-Span Workstation (UR3e cobot with robotic calipers and gauges) (New Scale Robotics) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 2% | 25 min13 min to 1.3 h | 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.
- Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters4% now, 4% by 2028
- Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers4% now, 4% by 2028
- Patternmakers, Metal and Plastic31% now, 35% by 2028
- Model Makers, Metal and Plastic22% now, 22% by 2028
- Sheet Metal Workers18% now, 18% by 2028
- Tool and Die Makers31% now, 39% 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).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Layout Workers, Metal and Plastic is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 13% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 13% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five. Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Layout Workers, Metal and Plastic come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Plan and develop layouts from blueprints and templates, applying knowledge of trigonometry, design, effects of heat, and properties of metals (100% of the task's time now); and Add dimensional details to blueprints or drawings made by other workers (100% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Layout Workers, Metal and Plastic stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Lay out and fabricate metal structural parts such as plates, bulkheads, and frames; Fit and align fabricated parts to be welded or assembled; and Mark curves, lines, holes, dimensions, and welding symbols onto workpieces, using scribes, soapstones, punches, and hand drills. Together such tasks are about 87% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Layout Workers, Metal and Plastic?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026, no reportable share went to this job's tasks. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 0%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Layout Workers, Metal and Plastic?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 79% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 76% of the working time. Its index is 0.76 of 3. One example: Voortman V704 CNC beam layout marking machine for "lay out and fabricate metal structural parts such as plates, bulkheads, and frames". A robot shown somewhere is not one in every workplace; this site's own estimates still count no physical work as within reach.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 14 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
This job in your state or metro area
Embed these figures on your site
A small card with the share of working time within reach now and at the end of 2027, 2028 and 2030, the date and a link back. Free under CC BY 4.0; the card carries the credit.
Your own version of this job
The page above is the occupation. Your job is your title and what you actually do: give both, and they are read against these tasks in your browser, nothing sent anywhere. The headline is free: how much of your working time is within reach now and by the end of 2028, and how many of the tasks your description names.
This occupation has not been reviewed task by task yet, so the full personal report is not offered for it; 402 of 923 occupations are reviewed so far, largest first.