Tapers
Seal joints between plasterboard or other wallboard to prepare wall surface for painting or papering.
12,840 people do this job in the US. $68,270 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 1%
- 0%
- 99%
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, 1%. Today's estimate: 1%.
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 . 16 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seal joints between plasterboard or other wallboard to prepare wall surfaces for painting or papering.Done daily by most who do it. | 17% | 1.3 h33 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Apply additional coats to fill in holes and make surfaces smooth.Done daily by most who do it. | 14% | 50 min17 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Apply texturizing compounds or primers to walls or ceilings before final finishing, using trowels, brushes, rollers, or spray guns.Done daily by most who do it. | 10% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Spread and smooth cementing material over tape, using trowels or floating machines to blend joints with wall surfaces.Done daily by most who do it. | 9% | 38 min21 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Spread sealing compound between boards or panels or over cracks, holes, nail heads, or screw heads, using trowels, broadknives, or spatulas.Done daily by most who do it. | 7% | 25 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Press paper tape over joints to embed tape into sealing compound and to seal joints.Done daily by most who do it. | 7% | 29 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Sand or patch nicks or cracks in plasterboard or wallboard.Done daily by most who do it. | 7% | 33 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Use mechanical applicators that spread compounds and embed tape in one operation.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 38 min21 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Work on high ceilings, using scaffolding or other tools, such as stilts.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 42 min25 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Mix sealing compounds by hand or with portable electric mixers.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 4% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | Stays with people | |
| Remove extra compound after surfaces have been covered sufficiently.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 21 min8 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Install metal molding at wall corners to secure wallboard.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 38 min17 min to 1.3 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.
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).