Pressers, Textile, Garment, and Related Materials
Press or shape articles by hand or machine.
26,120 people do this job in the US. $35,060 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 2%
- 0%
- 98%
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, 2%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 2%. Today's estimate: 2%.
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 . 28 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finish fancy garments such as evening gowns and costumes, using hand irons to produce high quality finishes.Done daily by most who do it. | 12% | 33 min13 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Finish pants, jackets, shirts, skirts and other dry-cleaned and laundered articles, using hand irons.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 9% | 13 min4 min to 29 min | Stays with people | |
| Shrink, stretch, or block articles by hand to conform to original measurements, using forms, blocks, and steam.Done daily by most who do it. | 8% | 21 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Operate steam, hydraulic, or other pressing machines to remove wrinkles from garments and flatwork items, or to shape, form, or patch articles.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 6% | 7 min3 min to 17 min | Stays with people | |
| Finish pleated garments, determining sizes of pleats from evidence of old pleats or from work orders, using machine presses or hand irons.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 6% | 10 min4 min to 25 min | Stays with people | |
| Select, install, and adjust machine components, including pressing forms, rollers, and guides, using hoists and hand tools.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 38 min17 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Finish velvet garments by steaming them on bucks of hot-head presses or steam tables, and brushing pile (nap) with handbrushes.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 5% | 17 min7 min to 42 min | Stays with people | |
| Block or shape knitted garments after cleaning.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 17 min7 min to 42 min | Stays with people | |
| Clean and maintain pressing machines, using cleaning solutions and lubricants.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 21 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Slide material back and forth over heated, metal, ball-shaped forms to smooth and press portions of garments that cannot be satisfactorily pressed with flat pressers or hand irons.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 4% | 7 min3 min to 17 min | Stays with people | |
| Push and pull irons over surfaces of articles to smooth or shape them.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 4% | 5 min2 min to 13 min | Stays with people | |
| Identify and treat spots on garments.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 3% | 7 min3 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.
- Sewing Machine Operators2% now, 2% by 2028
- Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Workers2% now, 2% by 2028
- Shoe Machine Operators and Tenders6% now, 6% by 2028
- Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders0% now, 0% by 2028
- Machine Feeders and Offbearers5% now, 5% by 2028
- Cutters and Trimmers, Hand5% 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).