Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood
Set up, operate, or tend wood sawing machines. May operate computer numerically controlled (CNC) equipment. Includes lead sawyers.
40,850 people do this job in the US. $42,770 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, 1%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 8%. Today's estimate: 8%.
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 . 22 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Set up, operate, or tend saws or machines that cut or trim wood to specified dimensions, such as circular saws, band saws, multiple-blade sawing machines, scroll saws, ripsaws, or crozer machines.Done daily by most who do it. | 15% | 25 min8 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Examine logs or lumber to plan the best cuts.Done daily by most who do it. | 9% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Monitor sawing machines, adjusting speed and tension and clearing jams to ensure proper operation.Done daily by most who do it. | 7% | 17 min8 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Adjust saw blades, using wrenches and rulers, or by turning handwheels or pressing pedals, levers, or panel buttons.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 13 min4 min to 29 min | Stays with people | |
| Cut grooves, bevels, or miters, saw curved or irregular designs, and sever or shape metals, according to specifications or work orders.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 6% | 25 min8 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Trim lumber to straighten rough edges or remove defects, using circular saws.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 5% | 13 min4 min to 33 min | Stays with people | |
| Inspect and measure workpieces to mark for cuts and to verify the accuracy of cuts, using rulers, squares, or caliper rules.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 5% | 7 min3 min to 17 min | Stays with people | |
| Adjust bolts, clamps, stops, guides, or table angles or heights, using hand tools.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 13 min4 min to 33 min | Stays with people | |
| Examine blueprints, drawings, work orders, or patterns to determine equipment set-up or selection details, procedures to be used, or dimensions of final products.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 17 min4 min to 33 min | 99%Half by now | |
| Guide workpieces against saws, saw over workpieces by hand, or operate automatic feeding devices to guide cuts.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 10 min3 min to 25 min | Stays with people | |
| Select saw blades, types or grades of stock, or cutting procedures to be used, according to work orders or supervisors' instructions.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Mount and bolt sawing blades or attachments to machine shafts.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 21 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.
- Woodworking Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Except Sawing7% now, 7% by 2028
- Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders7% now, 7% by 2028
- Grinding and Polishing Workers, Hand11% now, 11% by 2028
- Cutters and Trimmers, Hand5% now, 5% by 2028
- Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic18% now, 18% by 2028
- Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic7% now, 7% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
- Sawmills and Wood Preservation15,430 people
- Other Wood Product Manufacturing9,820 people
- Veneer, Plywood, and Engineered Wood Product Manufacturing4,900 people
- Merchant Wholesalers, Durable Goods (4232, 4233, 4235, 4236, 4237, and 4239 only)3,080 people
- Furniture and Related Product Manufacturing (3371 and 3372 only)3,030 people
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).