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Arm-Hand Steadiness

Ability · O*NET work requirement

The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.

In the O*NET occupational database, Arm-Hand Steadiness is an ability that work requires. O*NET rates how important it is (1–5) and what level of it a job needs (0–7) for every U.S. occupation. It is rated as important (3 or higher) in 399 of 894 occupations.

Breadth here means how widely O*NET rates this ability as important across occupations — not that it is rare, high-paying, or currently in employer demand.

Occupations that rely most on Arm-Hand Steadiness

Ranked by O*NET importance to the occupation (1–5). Bars are sized against the 1–5 scale; the level column is what depth of the ability the job needs (0–7).

Occupation Importance Score Level
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons 4.3 5.0
Dentists, General 4.1 4.6
Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers 4.0 3.8
Commercial Divers 4.0 3.6
Electrical Power-Line Installers and Repairers 4.0 3.4
Electrical and Electronics Installers and Repairers, Transportation Equipment 4.0 3.5
Grinding and Polishing Workers, Hand 4.0 3.8
Locksmiths and Safe Repairers 4.0 3.8
Maintenance Workers, Machinery 4.0 3.3
Manufactured Building and Mobile Home Installers 4.0 3.4
Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners 4.0 4.0
Orthodontists 4.0 3.9
Potters, Manufacturing 4.0 4.0
Roof Bolters, Mining 4.0 3.1
Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas 4.0 3.0
Sewers, Hand 4.0 4.1
Structural Iron and Steel Workers 4.0 3.9
Surgical Assistants 4.0 4.0
Tool Grinders, Filers, and Sharpeners 4.0 3.3
Upholsterers 4.0 4.1
Watch and Clock Repairers 4.0 4.1
Barbers 3.9 3.5
Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists 3.9 3.3
Cabinetmakers and Bench Carpenters 3.9 3.6
Continuous Mining Machine Operators 3.9 3.1
Craft Artists 3.9 4.0
Dental Hygienists 3.9 3.8
Dental Laboratory Technicians 3.9 3.8
Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas 3.9 3.1
Electronic Equipment Installers and Repairers, Motor Vehicles 3.9 3.8
Engine and Other Machine Assemblers 3.9 3.1
Explosives Workers, Ordnance Handling Experts, and Blasters 3.9 3.5
Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse 3.9 3.3
Gas Compressor and Gas Pumping Station Operators 3.9 3.1
Glass Blowers, Molders, Benders, and Finishers 3.9 4.0
Glaziers 3.9 3.3
Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists 3.9 3.8
Helpers--Extraction Workers 3.9 3.1
Home Appliance Repairers 3.9 3.6
Maintenance and Repair Workers, General 3.9 3.3

Showing the top 40 of 399 occupations where this is important.

How AI is used by roles that need Arm-Hand Steadiness

This ability is not itself "being automated" — but we can look at the roles for which O*NET rates it important and ask how those people actually use AI. This rolls the Anthropic Economic Index per-role signal up across those roles (importance-weighted). 41.6% of the 399 roles where this is important carry observed AI-usage data (166 roles).

Across those roles, 35.3% of AI conversations are people working with AI and 30.5% hand a task to AI , with an average autonomy of 3.53 / 5.

Collaboration pattern Share What it means
directive 25.6% AI does it; you give the instruction
learning 21.6% you ask AI to explain or teach
task iteration 12.7% you and AI go back and forth
feedback loop 4.8% AI does it, then adjusts from your feedback
validation 1.1% you do it; AI checks your work

Roles behind this signal

The roles where this ability is most important and that also have the most AEI data. "Works with AI" is the role's share of conversations that augment rather than automate.

Occupation Importance Works with AI Autonomy
Computer, Automated Teller, and Office Machine Repairers 3.1 33.4% 4.0/5
Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators 3.8 50.0% 4.0/5
Chemists 3.0 61.8% 4.0/5
Correctional Officers and Jailers 3.0 52.7% 3.0/5
Robotics Engineers 3.1 42.0% 4.0/5
Biological Technicians 3.0 55.5% 4.0/5
Chemical Technicians 3.1 53.9% 4.0/5
Tailors, Dressmakers, and Custom Sewers 3.9 58.0% 4.0/5
Midwives 3.0 68.8% 4.0/5
Audio and Video Equipment Technicians 3.1 51.6% 4.0/5
Photographers 3.0 47.8% 4.0/5
Craft Artists 3.9 42.4% 4.0/5

Source: Anthropic Economic Index (2026-01-15-v4-plus-2025-03-27-v2) over a sample of Claude.ai Free and Pro conversations — not all AI tools and not the whole workforce. Shares are of observed conversations, weighted by how important this ability is to each role; some conversations are left unclassified by Anthropic's taxonomy, so shares need not sum to 100.

Industries that concentrate this

Where Arm-Hand Steadiness matters most across the economy. Employment reach is the share of an industry's workers in occupations that significantly rely on Arm-Hand Steadiness (O*NET importance ≥ 3 of 5). Concentration compares that reach to the national average industry, so a value above 1× means the requirement is more pervasive here than across the economy as a whole.

Nationally, about 32.6% of workers are in occupations that significantly rely on Arm-Hand Steadiness (measured across 67 industries).

Sectors with the most such workers

Sector Workers Employment reach
Manufacturing 6,866,080 53.8%
Health Care and Social Assistance 6,133,070 26.5%
Accommodation and Food Services 5,928,890 41.7%
Construction 5,778,710 71.2%
Transportation and Warehousing 4,721,700 63.9%
Retail Trade 4,467,350 28.6%
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 3,856,300 42.7%
Wholesale Trade 2,151,030 35.6%
Other Services (except Public Administration) 1,822,480 41.2%
Educational Services 1,261,280 9.2%
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services 920,800 8.6%
Real Estate and Rental and Leasing 713,660 30.1%

Industries where it is most concentrated

Industry Level Concentration Employment reach
Masonry Contractors National industry 2.59× 84.4%
Landscaping Services National industry 2.56× 83.4%
Painting and Wall Covering Contractors National industry 2.55× 83.0%
Poured Concrete Foundation and Structure Contractors National industry 2.53× 82.4%
Drywall and Insulation Contractors National industry 2.46× 80.3%
Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting Sector 2.41× 78.6%
Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors National industry 2.32× 75.5%
Power and Communication Line and Related Structures Construction National industry 2.3× 75.1%
Full-Service Restaurants National industry 2.25× 73.5%
Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors National industry 2.23× 72.8%
Other Building Equipment Contractors National industry 2.19× 71.5%
Construction Sector 2.18× 71.2%

Reach is a measure of how widespread a requirement is across an industry's workforce, not how intensively any individual uses it. Sector worker counts come from BLS OEWS employment; the significance threshold and tool use come from O*NET. Industries shown by concentration are filtered to a real worker base so a tiny specialty cannot top the list on rounding.

Capabilities required by many of the same occupations — a measure of which skills, knowledge and abilities tend to travel together, not a judgment of similarity.

Capability Type Shared occupations
Manual Dexterity Ability 352
Finger Dexterity Ability 336
Control Precision Ability 309
Multilimb Coordination Ability 237
Operations Monitoring Cross-functional skill 253
Visualization Ability 258
Trunk Strength Ability 208
Operation and Control Cross-functional skill 195
Mechanical Knowledge 216
Near Vision Ability 397
Selective Attention Ability 327
Problem Sensitivity Ability 375

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Arm-Hand Steadiness." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; Census NAICS 2022; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27). Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/abilities/arm-hand-steadiness

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Arm-Hand Steadiness. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/abilities/arm-hand-steadiness

BibTeX
@misc{singulariki-arm-hand-steadiness,
  title  = {Arm-Hand Steadiness},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; Census NAICS 2022; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27). Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/abilities/arm-hand-steadiness}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.