Upholsterers
Make, repair, or replace upholstery for household furniture or transportation vehicles.
20,140 people do this job in the US. $46,340 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 7%
- 3%
- 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, 1%. 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 . 22 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Make, restore, or create custom upholstered furniture, using hand tools and knowledge of fabrics and upholstery methods.Done daily by most who do it. | 19% | 1.7 work days3.3 h to 4.2 work days | Stays with people | |
| Fit, install, and secure material on frames, using hand tools, power tools, glue, cement, or staples.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 12% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Build furniture up with loose fiber stuffing, cotton, felt, or foam padding to form smooth, rounded surfaces.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 11% | 1.3 h38 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Make, repair, or replace automobile upholstery and convertible and vinyl tops, using knowledge of fabric and upholstery methods.Done yearly or less by most who do it. | 8% | 5 h1.7 h to 1.7 work days | Stays with people | |
| Repair furniture frames and refinish exposed wood.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 3.3 h50 min to 6.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Adjust or replace webbing, padding, or springs, and secure them in place.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 1.3 h38 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Design upholstery cover patterns and cutting plans, based on sketches, customer descriptions, or blueprints.Done several times a day by most who do it. | 5% | 1.7 h50 min to 3.3 h | 90%Half by now | |
| Operate sewing machines or sew upholstery by hand to seam cushions and join various sections of covering material.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Measure and cut new covering materials, using patterns and measuring and cutting instruments, following sketches and design specifications.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 50 min25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Remove covering, webbing, padding, or defective springs from workpieces, using hand tools such as hammers and tack pullers.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 1.1 h25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Attach fasteners, grommets, buttons, buckles, ornamental trim, and other accessories to covers or frames, using hand tools.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 38 min13 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Pick up and deliver furniture.Done more than weekly by most who do it. | 3% | 50 min25 min to 2.1 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).