Packers and Packagers, Hand
In short: today's best AI models could do about 7% 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 conversations, in-person and hands-on work, about 93% of the time, stays with people.
Pack or package by hand a wide variety of products and materials.
559,820 people do this job in the US. $36,280 a year.
Reviewed on September 30, 2026: what each task is made of, and what handing it over would ask.
A typical 40-hour week
- AI could take on3 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people37 h
Packers and Packagers, Hand, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 3 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 37 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Record product and order information (about 3 h).
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.
- 0%
- 7%
- 0%
- 0%
- 93%
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.
What handing it over would take, now
The 7% within reach splits by what a model would need. The dates, pace and reliability follow the controls above. Estimates.
of the working time. The material can be handed to a model and the result handed back.
of the working time. The model has to be connected to the system the work lives in.
is conversation short enough by length. This site leaves conversation with people, so it is not in the total.
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, 6%. 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.
Measured use over time
None of this job's 12 tasks showed up in the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled in any of its 7 releases, from February 2025 to May 2026.
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 97% of this job's working time as physical work. For 97% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 53% in a purpose-built cell, 44% in a structured facility. 1.42 of 3, the 26th highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 3%
- In a purpose-built cell 53%
- In a structured facility 44%
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.
What changes for the people in this job
From the task-by-task review, by the end of 2028 on the long-run pace at four in five. It says which parts of the work stay with people and which change, not whether anyone keeps a job: that depends on decisions no data set can see.
What stays with people
93% of the working time: the conversation, in-person and hands-on parts of the tasks.
- Assemble and pad cartons, the hands-on work, 17%
- Inspect products and packing, the hands-on work, 15%
- Clean containers and work areas, the hands-on work, 13%
- Measure, weigh and count products, the hands-on work, 8%
- Mark and label containers, the hands-on work, 8%
- Move and sort products and containers, the hands-on work, 7%
What becomes checking the machine
No desk work within reach by then in tasks where a mistake costs something. Another 7% is desk work that is small if wrong, which can be handed over with lighter checks.
What to learn
- The hands-on craft. About 93% of the time is hands-on work, which no model here does; robots are rated separately on this page.
Your own version of this job: read it against your job description. The headline is free; the full personal report, every task with its timeline and what to learn, is $19 (a sample).
The tasks
Sorted by . 12 tasks from .
| Task | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assemble, line, and pad cartons, crates, and containers, using hand tools.Building cartons by hand.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, CVP Everest (Sparck Technologies / Packsize) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 17% | 7 min3 min to 17 min | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Examine and inspect containers, materials, or products to ensure that product quality and packing specifications are met.Looking each item over by hand.Done hourly or more by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, TOMRA Spectrim optical sorter/grader (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 15% | 4 min2 min to 13 min | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Clean containers, materials, supplies, or work areas, using cleaning solutions and hand tools.Cleaning by hand.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Peanut cleaning robot (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 13% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Measure, weigh, and count products and materials.Handling products by hand.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Yamato Dataweigh multihead weigher (combination scale) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 8% | 3 min1 min to 8 min | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Mark and label containers, container tags, or products, using marking tools.Labeling by hand.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, CTM Labeling Systems print-and-apply labelers on Amazon SLAM lines (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 8% | 3 min1 min to 8 min | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Record product, packaging, and order information on specified forms and records.Entries on the packing forms.Done daily by most who do it. | 7% | 4 min2 min to 13 min | Systems 100% | 100%Half by now |
| Obtain, move, and sort products, materials, containers, and orders, using hand tools.Handling goods.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, Digit (Agility Robotics) at GXO Logistics (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 7% | 4 min2 min to 17 min | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Remove completed or defective products or materials, placing them on moving equipment, such as conveyors, or in specified areas, such as loading docks.Moving items to conveyors or docks by hand.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a structured facility, Smart Palletizer (Smart Robotics) with Fork Gripper (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 4 min2 min to 10 min | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Seal containers or materials, using glues, fasteners, nails, and hand tools.Hands-on work with tools.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, 3M-Matic Random Case Sealer 7000r3 Pro (AccuGlide 3 taping head) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 3 min1 min to 8 min | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Place or pour products or materials into containers, using hand tools and equipment, or fill containers from spouts or chutes.Placing or pouring products by hand.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a structured facility, Chef Robotics food assembly pod (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 4 min2 min to 17 min | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Transport packages to customers' vehicles.Carrying by hand.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Dexterity Mech / DexR (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 8 min3 min to 25 min | Hands-on 100% | Stays with people |
| Load materials and products into package processing equipment.Feeding the machine by hand.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a structured facility, Schubert tog.519 cobot (Gerhard Schubert GmbH) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 4 min2 min to 17 min | Hands-on 100% | 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. Made of: how the task's time splits among five kinds of doing. Only the documents and systems parts can count as within reach, so a task that is 30% documents can be at most 30% 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.
- Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders1% now, 1% by 2028
- Machine Feeders and Offbearers5% now, 5% by 2028
- Graders and Sorters, Agricultural Products7% now, 7% by 2028
- Adhesive Bonding Machine Operators and Tenders9% now, 9% by 2028
- Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders7% now, 7% by 2028
- Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand9% now, 9% 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 Packers and Packagers, Hand is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 7% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 7% 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 Packers and Packagers, Hand 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: Record product and order information (100% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Packers and Packagers, Hand stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Assemble and pad cartons; Inspect products and packing; and Clean containers and work areas. Together such tasks are about 93% of the working time, and the people and body parts of the other tasks stay with people too.
- What should Packers and Packagers, Hand learn as AI takes on more of the work?
- By the job's own task-by-task review, the first things to learn are the hands-on craft. By the end of 2028 on the long-run pace at four in five, about 93% of the working time stays with people, 0% becomes checking a model's work and 7% could be handed over with lighter checks. It says which parts of the work change, never whether anyone keeps a job.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Packers and Packagers, Hand?
- 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 Packers and Packagers, Hand?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 97% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 97% of the working time, 44% in a structured facility. Its index is 1.42 of 3. One example: Digit (Agility Robotics) at GXO Logistics for "move and sort products and containers". 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 12 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, reviewed one task at a time on September 30, 2026 for what each is made of (documents, business systems, conversation, in person, hands-on), 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.
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