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Problem Sensitivity

Ability · O*NET work requirement

The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.

In the O*NET occupational database, Problem Sensitivity 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 852 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 Problem Sensitivity

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
Anesthesiologists 5.0 5.5
Family Medicine Physicians 5.0 5.3
Obstetricians and Gynecologists 5.0 5.9
Air Traffic Controllers 4.8 4.6
Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers 4.8 5.0
Nurse Anesthetists 4.8 5.0
Urologists 4.8 5.3
Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses 4.6 5.0
Nuclear Engineers 4.6 4.8
Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians 4.5 4.4
Allergists and Immunologists 4.5 5.3
Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers 4.5 4.3
Radiologists 4.5 5.0
Security Managers 4.5 4.8
Sports Medicine Physicians 4.5 5.1
Business Continuity Planners 4.4 4.9
Clinical and Counseling Psychologists 4.4 4.3
Emergency Medicine Physicians 4.4 5.4
Fire-Prevention and Protection Engineers 4.4 4.4
General Internal Medicine Physicians 4.4 5.6
Physicians, Pathologists 4.4 5.8
Acute Care Nurses 4.3 4.9
Child, Family, and School Social Workers 4.3 4.4
Clinical Neuropsychologists 4.3 5.0
Dentists, General 4.3 5.1
Dermatologists 4.3 5.0
Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary 4.3 4.5
Epidemiologists 4.3 4.8
Gambling Surveillance Officers and Gambling Investigators 4.3 4.1
Mental Health Counselors 4.3 5.0
Naturopathic Physicians 4.3 5.0
Neurologists 4.3 5.8
Nurse Practitioners 4.3 5.1
Ophthalmologists, Except Pediatric 4.3 5.6
Pediatricians, General 4.3 5.1
Security Management Specialists 4.3 4.5
Airfield Operations Specialists 4.1 4.3
Anesthesiologist Assistants 4.1 4.1
Athletic Trainers 4.1 4.8
Aviation Inspectors 4.1 4.4

Showing the top 40 of 852 occupations where this is important.

How AI is used by roles that need Problem Sensitivity

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). 57.9% of the 852 roles where this is important carry observed AI-usage data (493 roles).

Across those roles, 45.8% of AI conversations are people working with AI and 31.7% hand a task to AI , with an average autonomy of 3.57 / 5.

Collaboration pattern Share What it means
directive 29.2% AI does it; you give the instruction
task iteration 23.4% you and AI go back and forth
learning 19.7% you ask AI to explain or teach
validation 2.7% you do it; AI checks your work
feedback loop 2.5% AI does it, then adjusts from your feedback

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
English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary 3.4 63.2% 4.0/5
Biological Science Teachers, Postsecondary 3.3 63.2% 4.0/5
Editors 3.4 68.2% 4.0/5
Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary 3.3 65.2% 3.0/5
Educational, Guidance, School, and Vocational Counselors 3.8 70.6% 4.0/5
Instructional Coordinators 4.0 53.1% 4.0/5
Technical Writers 3.4 54.2% 4.0/5
Education Teachers, Postsecondary 3.8 65.3% 3.5/5
Social Work Teachers, Postsecondary 3.5 67.2% 3.5/5
Office Clerks, General 3.1 36.5% 3.0/5
Atmospheric, Earth, Marine, and Space Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary 3.6 66.3% 4.0/5
Philosophy and Religion Teachers, Postsecondary 3.3 66.8% 3.3/5

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 Problem Sensitivity matters most across the economy. Employment reach is the share of an industry's workers in occupations that significantly rely on Problem Sensitivity (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 79.4% of workers are in occupations that significantly rely on Problem Sensitivity (measured across 67 industries).

Sectors with the most such workers

Sector Workers Employment reach
Health Care and Social Assistance 16,662,690 72.1%
Retail Trade 12,474,410 80.0%
Educational Services 11,257,900 82.5%
Manufacturing 10,261,270 80.4%
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services 9,728,560 90.3%
Accommodation and Food Services 8,183,210 57.5%
Construction 7,342,110 90.4%
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 7,263,060 80.4%
Finance and Insurance 5,850,920 94.0%
Transportation and Warehousing 5,567,520 75.3%
Wholesale Trade 4,918,240 81.5%
Other Services (except Public Administration) 3,695,810 83.5%

Industries where it is most concentrated

Industry Level Concentration Employment reach
Labor Unions and Similar Labor Organizations National industry 1.23× 97.6%
Insurance Agencies and Brokerages National industry 1.22× 97.0%
Poured Concrete Foundation and Structure Contractors National industry 1.22× 96.8%
Landscaping Services National industry 1.21× 96.2%
Pharmacies and Drug Retailers National industry 1.21× 96.4%
Power and Communication Line and Related Structures Construction National industry 1.2× 95.4%
Fossil Fuel Electric Power Generation National industry 1.2× 94.9%
Radio Broadcasting Stations National industry 1.2× 95.0%
Nuclear Electric Power Generation National industry 1.2× 95.5%
Wind Electric Power Generation National industry 1.2× 95.2%
Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors National industry 1.19× 94.2%
Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors National industry 1.19× 94.3%

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
Near Vision Ability 848
Oral Comprehension Ability 834
Oral Expression Ability 825
Information Ordering Ability 811
Deductive Reasoning Ability 794
Critical Thinking Basic skill 790
Active Listening Basic skill 802
Speaking Basic skill 782
Speech Recognition Ability 781
Monitoring Basic skill 758
Speech Clarity Ability 765
Inductive Reasoning Ability 742

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. "Problem Sensitivity." 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/problem-sensitivity

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Problem Sensitivity. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/abilities/problem-sensitivity

BibTeX
@misc{singulariki-problem-sensitivity,
  title  = {Problem Sensitivity},
  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/problem-sensitivity}
}

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