Print Binding and Finishing Workers
Bind books and other publications or finish printed products by hand or machine. May set up binding and finishing machines.
33,180 people do this job in the US. $42,290 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 8%
- 2%
- 90%
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, 4%. Today's estimate: 4%.
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 . 25 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Repair, restore, or rebind old, rare, or damaged books, using hand tools.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 15% | 6.7 h1.7 h to 3.1 work days | Stays with people | |
| Stitch or glue endpapers, bindings, backings, or signatures, using sewing machines, glue machines, or glue and brushes.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 8% | 33 min13 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Form book bodies by folding and sewing printed sheets to form signatures and assembling signatures in numerical order.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 6% | 1.7 h25 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Set up or operate machines that perform binding operations, such as pressing, folding, or trimming.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 38 min13 min to 2.1 h | Stays with people | |
| Prepare finished books for shipping by wrapping or packing books and stacking boxes on pallets.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 33 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Train workers to set up, operate, and use automatic bindery machines.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 5% | 2.5 h50 min to 6.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Bind new books, using hand tools such as bone folders, knives, hammers, or brass binding tools.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 2.5 h50 min to 6.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Install or adjust bindery machine devices, such as knives, guides, rollers, rounding forms, creasing rams, or clamps, to accommodate sheets, signatures, or books of specified sizes.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 38 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Trim edges of books to size, using cutting machines, book trimming machines, or hand cutters.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Set up or operate bindery machines, such as coil binders, thermal or tape binders, plastic comb binders, or specialty binders.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 33 min13 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Design original or special bindings for limited editions or other custom binding projects.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 5% | 6.7 h1.7 h to 2.5 work days | 8%Half by Sep 2027 | |
| Set up or operate glue machines by filling glue reservoirs, turning switches to activate heating elements, or adjusting glue flow or conveyor speed.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 25 min8 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.
- Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders0% now, 0% by 2028
- Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders7% now, 7% by 2028
- Adhesive Bonding Machine Operators and Tenders9% now, 9% by 2028
- Sewing Machine Operators2% now, 2% by 2028
- Textile Cutting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders13% now, 14% by 2028
- Machine Feeders and Offbearers5% 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).