Reinforcing Iron and Rebar Workers
Position and secure steel bars or mesh in concrete forms in order to reinforce concrete. Use a variety of fasteners, rod-bending machines, blowtorches, and hand tools. Includes rod busters.
13,800 people do this job in the US. $58,970 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 8%
- 0%
- 92%
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, 6%. 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 . 9 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position and secure steel bars, rods, cables, or mesh in concrete forms, using fasteners, rod-bending machines, blowtorches, or hand tools.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 29% | 1.7 h25 min to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Space and fasten together rods in forms according to blueprints, using wire and pliers.Done daily by most who do it. | 16% | 1.3 h25 min to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Bend steel rods with hand tools or rod-bending machines and weld them with arc-welding equipment.Done daily by most who do it. | 14% | 1.4 h25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Cut and fit wire mesh or fabric, using hooked rods, and position fabric or mesh in concrete to reinforce concrete.Done daily by most who do it. | 8% | 1.1 h17 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Determine quantities, sizes, shapes, and locations of reinforcing rods from blueprints, sketches, or oral instructions.Done daily by most who do it. | 8% | 38 min13 min to 2.5 h | 86%Half by now | |
| Cut rods to required lengths, using metal shears, hacksaws, bar cutters, or acetylene torches.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 8% | 38 min8 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Unload rebar from trucks.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 7% | 50 min25 min to 2.1 h | Stays with people | |
| Use forklifts or cranes to move construction material, such as rebar.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 6% | 25 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Place blocks under rebar to hold the bars off the deck when reinforcing floors.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 33 min13 min to 1.7 h | 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.
- Structural Iron and Steel Workers5% now, 5% by 2028
- Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters5% now, 5% by 2028
- Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers8% now, 8% by 2028
- Cement Masons and Concrete Finishers0% now, 0% by 2028
- Brickmasons and Blockmasons12% now, 13% by 2028
- Sheet Metal Workers11% now, 18% 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).