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Peripheral Vision

Ability · O*NET work requirement

The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.

In the O*NET occupational database, Peripheral Vision 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 9 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 Peripheral Vision

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
Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers 3.9 4.0
Bus Drivers, School 3.4 3.3
Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining 3.4 3.1
Bus Drivers, Transit and Intercity 3.3 3.0
Shuttle Drivers and Chauffeurs 3.1 2.6
Commercial Pilots 3.0 3.1
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers 3.0 3.0
Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators 3.0 3.0
Motorboat Operators 3.0 2.9
Locomotive Engineers 2.9 2.8
Rail Yard Engineers, Dinkey Operators, and Hostlers 2.9 2.5
Crane and Tower Operators 2.8 2.8
Fishing and Hunting Workers 2.8 2.6
Logging Equipment Operators 2.8 2.8
Parking Attendants 2.8 2.4
Sailors and Marine Oilers 2.8 2.5
Subway and Streetcar Operators 2.8 2.5
Transit and Railroad Police 2.8 2.6
Fallers 2.6 2.4
Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels 2.6 2.8
Detectives and Criminal Investigators 2.6 2.6
Firefighters 2.6 2.6
Light Truck Drivers 2.6 2.3
Pile Driver Operators 2.6 2.8
Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers 2.6 2.6
Roof Bolters, Mining 2.6 2.1
Hoist and Winch Operators 2.5 2.0
Manufactured Building and Mobile Home Installers 2.5 2.3
Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors 2.5 2.0
Structural Iron and Steel Workers 2.5 2.6
Tree Trimmers and Pruners 2.5 2.1
Agricultural Equipment Operators 2.4 2.0
Commercial Divers 2.4 2.0
Derrick Operators, Oil and Gas 2.4 2.0
Driver/Sales Workers 2.4 2.0
Farmers, Ranchers, and Other Agricultural Managers 2.4 1.9
Fire Inspectors and Investigators 2.4 1.6
First-Line Supervisors of Security Workers 2.4 2.1
Fish and Game Wardens 2.4 2.3
Helpers--Extraction Workers 2.4 2.3

How AI is used by roles that need Peripheral Vision

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). 11.1% of the 9 roles where this is important carry observed AI-usage data (1 roles).

Across those roles, 38.1% of AI conversations are people working with AI and 40.5% hand a task to AI , with an average autonomy of 4.00 / 5.

Collaboration pattern Share What it means
directive 40.5% AI does it; you give the instruction
task iteration 38.1% you and AI go back and forth

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
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers 3.0 38.1% 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 Peripheral Vision matters most across the economy. Employment reach is the share of an industry's workers in occupations that significantly rely on Peripheral Vision (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 2.5% of workers are in occupations that significantly rely on Peripheral Vision (measured across 49 industries).

Sectors with the most such workers

Sector Workers Employment reach
Transportation and Warehousing 1,999,230 27.0%
Wholesale Trade 360,460 6.0%
Manufacturing 341,730 2.7%
Educational Services 216,630 1.6%
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 190,410 2.1%
Construction 152,090 1.9%
Retail Trade 122,670 0.8%
Health Care and Social Assistance 63,920 0.3%
Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction 55,840 9.7%
Real Estate and Rental and Leasing 36,820 1.6%
Other Services (except Public Administration) 29,080 0.7%
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services 27,590 0.3%

Industries where it is most concentrated

Industry Level Concentration Employment reach
Transportation and Warehousing Sector 10.8× 27.0%
Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction Sector 3.88× 9.7%
Wholesale Trade Sector 2.4× 6.0%
Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting Sector 2.2× 5.5%
Manufacturing Sector 1.08× 2.7%
Temporary Help Services National industry 1.08× 2.7%
Poured Concrete Foundation and Structure Contractors National industry 0.92× 2.3%
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services Sector 0.84× 2.1%
Construction Sector 0.76× 1.9%
Educational Services Sector 0.64× 1.6%
Real Estate and Rental and Leasing Sector 0.64× 1.6%
Retail Trade Sector 0.32× 0.8%

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
Night Vision Ability 4
Spatial Orientation Ability 9
Glare Sensitivity Ability 5
Response Orientation Ability 9
Depth Perception Ability 9
Rate Control Ability 9
Auditory Attention Ability 9
Speed of Limb Movement Ability 1
Transportation Knowledge 7
Reaction Time Ability 9
Time Sharing Ability 8
Hearing Sensitivity Ability 5

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. "Peripheral Vision." 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/peripheral-vision

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Peripheral Vision. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/abilities/peripheral-vision

BibTeX
@misc{singulariki-peripheral-vision,
  title  = {Peripheral Vision},
  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/peripheral-vision}
}

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