Office Machine Operators, Except Computer
Operate one or more of a variety of office machines, such as photocopying, photographic, and duplicating machines, or other office machines.
25,130 people do this job in the US. $40,960 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 11%
- 0%
- 89%
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, 5%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 11%. Today's estimate: 11%.
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 . 18 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operate office machines such as high speed business photocopiers, readers, scanners, addressing machines, stencil-cutting machines, microfilm readers or printers, folding and inserting machines, bursters, and binder machines.Done daily by most who do it. | 19% | 38 min13 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Sort, assemble, and proof completed work.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 12% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Monitor machine operation, and make adjustments as necessary to ensure proper operation.Done daily by most who do it. | 9% | 25 min8 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Set up and adjust machines, regulating factors such as speed, ink flow, focus, and number of copies.Done daily by most who do it. | 8% | 21 min8 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Prepare and process papers for use in scanning, microfilming, and microfiche.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 8% | 25 min8 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Operate auxiliary machines such as collators, pad and tablet making machines, staplers, and paper punching, folding, cutting, and perforating machines.Done daily by most who do it. | 8% | 21 min8 min to 1.1 h | Stays with people | |
| Read job orders to determine the type of work to be done, the quantities to be produced, and the materials needed.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 5% | 8 min4 min to 13 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Load machines with materials such as blank paper or film.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 4% | 8 min4 min to 17 min | Stays with people | |
| File and store completed documents.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 17 min4 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Deliver completed work.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 4% | 13 min4 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Complete records of production, including work volumes and outputs, materials used, and any backlogs.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Clean machines, perform minor repairs, and report major repair needs.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 25 min8 min to 50 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.
- Prepress Technicians and Workers71% now, 77% by 2028
- Printing Press Operators24% now, 24% by 2028
- Data Entry Keyers96% now, 99% by 2028
- Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators14% now, 14% by 2028
- Print Binding and Finishing Workers4% now, 8% by 2028
- Computer, Automated Teller, and Office Machine Repairers17% now, 17% 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).