Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers
Use hand-welding, flame-cutting, hand-soldering, or brazing equipment to weld or join metal components or to fill holes, indentations, or seams of fabricated metal products.
416,210 people do this job in the US. $53,750 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 17%
- 0%
- 83%
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, 15%. Today's estimate: 16%.
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 . 30 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weld components in flat, vertical, or overhead positions.Done daily by most who do it. | 11% | 50 min13 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Weld separately or in combination, using aluminum, stainless steel, cast iron, and other alloys.Done daily by most who do it. | 8% | 1.3 h17 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Develop templates and models for welding projects, using mathematical calculations based on blueprint information.Done daily by most who do it. | 7% | 1.1 h25 min to 2.1 h | 95%Half by now | |
| Determine required equipment and welding methods, applying knowledge of metallurgy, geometry, and welding techniques.Done daily by most who do it. | 7% | 38 min13 min to 1.3 h | 98%Half by now | |
| Repair products by dismantling, straightening, reshaping, and reassembling parts, using cutting torches, straightening presses, and hand tools.Done more than monthly by most who do it. | 7% | 2.1 h50 min to 4.2 h | Stays with people | |
| Recognize, set up, and operate hand and power tools common to the welding trade, such as shielded metal arc and gas metal arc welding equipment.Done daily by most who do it. | 5% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Prepare all material surfaces to be welded, ensuring that there is no loose or thick scale, slag, rust, moisture, grease, or other foreign matter.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Align and clamp workpieces together, using rules, squares, or hand tools, or position items in fixtures, jigs, or vises.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Monitor the fitting, burning, and welding processes to avoid overheating of parts or warping, shrinking, distortion, or expansion of material.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 29 min8 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Guide and direct flames or electrodes on or across workpieces to straighten, bend, melt, or build up metal.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 38 min8 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Chip or grind off excess weld, slag, or spatter, using hand scrapers or power chippers, portable grinders, or arc-cutting equipment.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 25 min8 min to 58 min | Stays with people | |
| Analyze engineering drawings, blueprints, specifications, sketches, work orders, and material safety data sheets to plan layout, assembly, and operations. | 3% | 38 min17 min to 1.7 h | 98%Half by now |
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.
- Welding, Soldering, and Brazing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders11% now, 11% by 2028
- Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters5% now, 5% by 2028
- Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers4% now, 4% by 2028
- Engine and Other Machine Assemblers8% now, 9% by 2028
- Boilermakers3% now, 3% by 2028
- Electric Motor, Power Tool, and Related Repairers3% now, 3% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
- Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing (3323 and 3324 only)70,020 people
- Machinery Manufacturing (3331, 3332, 3334, and 3339 only)56,750 people
- Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing (3321, 3322, 3325, 3326, and 3329 only)25,910 people
- Motor Vehicle Body and Trailer Manufacturing22,560 people
- Machine Shops; Turned Product; and Screw, Nut, and Bolt Manufacturing15,760 people
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).