Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators
Operate equipment used for applying concrete, asphalt, or other materials to road beds, parking lots, or airport runways and taxiways or for tamping gravel, dirt, or other materials. Includes concrete and asphalt paving machine operators, form tampers, tamping machine operators, and stone spreader operators.
41,820 people do this job in the US. $53,340 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 0%
- 0%
- 100%
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, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 0%. Today's estimate: 0%.
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 . 20 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operate machines to spread, smooth, level, or steel-reinforce stone, concrete, or asphalt on road beds.Done daily by most who do it. | 16% | 1.7 h25 min to 4.2 h | Stays with people | |
| Control paving machines to push dump trucks and to maintain a constant flow of asphalt or other material into hoppers or screeds.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 14% | 1.3 h25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Operate oil distributors, loaders, chip spreaders, dump trucks, and snow plows.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 10% | 1.7 h25 min to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Operate tamping machines or manually roll surfaces to compact earth fills, foundation forms, and finished road materials, according to grade specifications.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 1.7 h33 min to 4.2 h | Stays with people | |
| Drive machines onto truck trailers, and drive trucks to transport machines and material to and from job sites.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 1.3 h25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Shovel blacktop.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 5% | 38 min13 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Inspect, clean, maintain, and repair equipment, using mechanics' hand tools, or report malfunctions to supervisors.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 50 min17 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Observe distribution of paving material to adjust machine settings or material flow, and indicate low spots for workers to add material.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 50 min17 min to 2.1 h | Stays with people | |
| Coordinate truck dumping.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 5% | 38 min13 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Set up and tear down equipment.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 1.3 h25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Control traffic.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 4% | 50 min25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Start machine, engage clutch, and push and move levers to guide machine along forms or guidelines and to control the operation of machine attachments.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 4% | 17 min8 min to 33 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.
- Construction Laborers2% now, 2% by 2028
- Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators9% now, 9% by 2028
- Segmental Pavers0% now, 0% by 2028
- Cement Masons and Concrete Finishers0% now, 0% by 2028
- Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining10% now, 10% by 2028
- Pile Driver Operators0% now, 0% 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).