Packers and Packagers, Hand
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.
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, 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.
The tasks
Sorted by . 12 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assemble, line, and pad cartons, crates, and containers, using hand tools.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 17% | 7 min3 min to 17 min | Stays with people | |
| Examine and inspect containers, materials, or products to ensure that product quality and packing specifications are met.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 15% | 4 min2 min to 13 min | Stays with people | |
| Clean containers, materials, supplies, or work areas, using cleaning solutions and hand tools.Done daily by most who do it. | 13% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | Stays with people | |
| Measure, weigh, and count products and materials.Done daily by most who do it. | 8% | 3 min1 min to 8 min | Stays with people | |
| Mark and label containers, container tags, or products, using marking tools.Done daily by most who do it. | 8% | 3 min1 min to 8 min | Stays with people | |
| Record product, packaging, and order information on specified forms and records.Done daily by most who do it. | 7% | 4 min2 min to 13 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Obtain, move, and sort products, materials, containers, and orders, using hand tools.Done daily by most who do it. | 7% | 4 min2 min to 17 min | 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.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 4 min2 min to 10 min | Stays with people | |
| Seal containers or materials, using glues, fasteners, nails, and hand tools.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 3 min1 min to 8 min | Stays with people | |
| Place or pour products or materials into containers, using hand tools and equipment, or fill containers from spouts or chutes.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 4 min2 min to 17 min | Stays with people | |
| Transport packages to customers' vehicles.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 8 min3 min to 25 min | Stays with people | |
| Load materials and products into package processing equipment.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 4 min2 min to 17 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.
- Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders2% now, 2% 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, Hand11% now, 11% 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).