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Flexibility of Closure

Ability · O*NET work requirement

The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.

In the O*NET occupational database, Flexibility of Closure 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 481 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 Flexibility of Closure

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
Air Traffic Controllers 4.3 4.5
Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers 4.0 4.1
Forensic Science Technicians 4.0 4.1
Geodetic Surveyors 4.0 4.1
Astronomers 3.9 4.4
Critical Care Nurses 3.9 3.9
Emergency Medicine Physicians 3.9 4.0
Environmental Compliance Inspectors 3.9 4.1
Intelligence Analysts 3.9 4.0
Occupational Health and Safety Specialists 3.9 3.9
Ophthalmologists, Except Pediatric 3.9 3.9
Optometrists 3.9 4.0
Radiologists 3.9 4.5
Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians 3.8 3.8
Anesthesiologists 3.8 3.8
Anthropologists and Archeologists 3.8 3.9
Coroners 3.8 3.8
Fire-Prevention and Protection Engineers 3.8 4.0
Government Property Inspectors and Investigators 3.8 4.0
Microbiologists 3.8 4.0
Nanosystems Engineers 3.8 3.9
Neurologists 3.8 4.4
Petroleum Pump System Operators, Refinery Operators, and Gaugers 3.8 3.8
Physicians, Pathologists 3.8 4.3
Robotics Engineers 3.8 3.9
Security Management Specialists 3.8 3.8
Architects, Except Landscape and Naval 3.6 3.9
Biochemists and Biophysicists 3.6 3.9
Civil Engineers 3.6 3.8
Construction Managers 3.6 3.6
Cytotechnologists 3.6 3.9
Detectives and Criminal Investigators 3.6 3.6
Epidemiologists 3.6 3.8
First-Line Supervisors of Security Workers 3.6 3.5
Gambling Surveillance Officers and Gambling Investigators 3.6 3.5
Hydrologists 3.6 3.8
Locomotive Engineers 3.6 3.5
Manufacturing Engineers 3.6 4.0
Mining and Geological Engineers, Including Mining Safety Engineers 3.6 3.9
Podiatrists 3.6 4.0

Showing the top 40 of 481 occupations where this is important.

How AI is used by roles that need Flexibility of Closure

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). 53.0% of the 481 roles where this is important carry observed AI-usage data (255 roles).

Across those roles, 44.5% of AI conversations are people working with AI and 30.2% hand a task to AI , with an average autonomy of 3.59 / 5.

Collaboration pattern Share What it means
directive 27.4% AI does it; you give the instruction
learning 22.8% you ask AI to explain or teach
task iteration 19.4% you and AI go back and forth
feedback loop 2.8% AI does it, then adjusts from your feedback
validation 2.3% 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
Editors 3.1 68.2% 4.0/5
Instructional Coordinators 3.0 53.1% 4.0/5
Engineering Teachers, Postsecondary 3.0 67.0% 4.0/5
Chemistry Teachers, Postsecondary 3.0 66.0% 4.0/5
Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary 3.0 65.8% 3.8/5
Adult Basic and Secondary Education and Literacy Teachers and Instructors 3.0 70.9% 4.0/5
Architecture Teachers, Postsecondary 3.0 65.7% 3.8/5
Anthropology and Archeology Teachers, Postsecondary 3.0 63.1% 4.0/5
Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education 3.0 62.8% 4.0/5
Mental Health Counselors 3.0 70.6% 4.0/5
Bioinformatics Scientists 3.4 44.5% 4.0/5
Clergy 3.0 60.3% 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 Flexibility of Closure matters most across the economy. Employment reach is the share of an industry's workers in occupations that significantly rely on Flexibility of Closure (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 30.8% of workers are in occupations that significantly rely on Flexibility of Closure (measured across 67 industries).

Sectors with the most such workers

Sector Workers Employment reach
Health Care and Social Assistance 8,549,570 37.0%
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services 5,695,020 52.9%
Manufacturing 5,608,840 43.9%
Educational Services 4,651,580 34.1%
Construction 3,284,510 40.4%
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 2,676,250 29.6%
Transportation and Warehousing 2,516,530 34.0%
Finance and Insurance 1,890,140 30.4%
Wholesale Trade 1,558,820 25.8%
Retail Trade 1,358,130 8.7%
Information 1,288,810 44.3%
Management of Companies and Enterprises 1,280,540 45.6%

Industries where it is most concentrated

Industry Level Concentration Employment reach
Nuclear Electric Power Generation National industry 2.65× 81.5%
Wind Electric Power Generation National industry 2.61× 80.3%
Fossil Fuel Electric Power Generation National industry 2.48× 76.3%
Hydroelectric Power Generation National industry 2.48× 76.5%
Engineering Services National industry 2.32× 71.6%
Television Broadcasting Stations National industry 2.28× 70.1%
Utilities Sector 2.21× 68.0%
Testing Laboratories and Services National industry 2.18× 67.1%
Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors National industry 2.13× 65.7%
Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors National industry 2.1× 64.8%
Veterinary Services National industry 2.1× 64.6%
Exterminating and Pest Control Services National industry 2.06× 63.4%

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
Judgment and Decision Making Cross-functional skill 439
Complex Problem Solving Cross-functional skill 421
Inductive Reasoning Ability 459
Perceptual Speed Ability 327
Monitoring Basic skill 460
Category Flexibility Ability 436
Deductive Reasoning Ability 471
Critical Thinking Basic skill 470
Selective Attention Ability 420
Reading Comprehension Basic skill 438
Information Ordering Ability 474
Active Learning Basic skill 383

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. "Flexibility of Closure." 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/flexibility-of-closure

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Flexibility of Closure. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/abilities/flexibility-of-closure

BibTeX
@misc{singulariki-flexibility-of-closure,
  title  = {Flexibility of Closure},
  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/flexibility-of-closure}
}

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