Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary
Assist faculty or other instructional staff in postsecondary institutions by performing instructional support activities, such as developing teaching materials, leading discussion groups, preparing and giving examinations, and grading examinations or papers.
164,090 people do this job in the US. $42,910 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 34%
- 13%
- 52%
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, 14%. Today's estimate: 18%.
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 . 20 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Provide assistance to faculty members or staff with laboratory or field research.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 33% | 3.3 h1.7 h to 6.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Develop teaching materials, such as syllabi, visual aids, answer keys, supplementary notes, or course Web sites.Done more than weekly by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 15% | 3.3 h50 min to 1 work day | 28%Half by Feb 2027 | |
| Evaluate and grade examinations, assignments, or papers, and record grades.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 10% | 2.5 h50 min to 6.7 h | 46%Half by Oct 2026 | |
| Teach undergraduate-level courses.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 9% | 2.5 h1.3 h to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Demonstrate use of laboratory equipment and enforce laboratory rules.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 7% | 1.3 h25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Schedule and maintain regular office hours to meet with students.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 6% | 1.7 h50 min to 2.5 h | 97%Half by now | |
| Lead discussion sections, tutorials, or laboratory sections.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 4% | 1.7 h50 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Tutor or mentor students who need additional instruction.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 4% | 50 min25 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Attend lectures given by the supervising instructor.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 3% | 1.1 h42 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Copy and distribute classroom materials.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 2% | 25 min8 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Return assignments to students in accordance with established deadlines.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 2% | 38 min13 min to 1.7 h | 95%Half by now | |
| Complete laboratory projects prior to assigning them to students so that any needed modifications can be made.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 2% | 2.5 h50 min to 6.7 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.
- Tutors66% now, 67% by 2028
- Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education36% now, 44% by 2028
- Education Teachers, Postsecondary19% now, 66% by 2028
- Career/Technical Education Teachers, Middle School34% now, 39% by 2028
- Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education29% now, 35% by 2028
- Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education40% now, 46% 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).