Pile Driver Operators
Operate pile drivers mounted on skids, barges, crawler treads, or locomotive cranes to drive pilings for retaining walls, bulkheads, and foundations of structures such as buildings, bridges, and piers.
2,310 people do this job in the US. $73,300 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 . 5 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drive pilings to provide support for buildings or other structures, using heavy equipment with a pile driver head.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 33% | 38 min17 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Move hand and foot levers of hoisting equipment to position piling leads, hoist piling into leads, and position hammers over pilings.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 25% | 21 min8 min to 42 min | Stays with people | |
| Move levers and turn valves to activate power hammers, or to raise and lower drophammers that drive piles to required depths.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 22% | 21 min8 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Conduct pre-operational checks on equipment to ensure proper functioning.Done daily by most who do it. | 10% | 25 min13 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Clean, lubricate, and refill equipment.Done daily by most who do it. | 10% | 29 min17 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.
- Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators9% now, 9% by 2028
- Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators0% now, 0% by 2028
- Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining10% now, 10% by 2028
- Hoist and Winch Operators0% now, 0% by 2028
- Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators0% now, 0% by 2028
- Mobile Heavy Equipment Mechanics, Except Engines5% now, 5% 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).