Skip to content
Singulariki

Speech Clarity

Ability · O*NET work requirement

The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.

In the O*NET occupational database, Speech Clarity 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 786 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 Speech Clarity

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
Clergy 4.9 5.5
Broadcast Announcers and Radio Disc Jockeys 4.8 4.9
Anthropology and Archeology Teachers, Postsecondary 4.6 4.9
Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary 4.6 4.5
Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary 4.6 4.9
Education Teachers, Postsecondary 4.4 5.0
Lawyers 4.4 4.8
Atmospheric, Earth, Marine, and Space Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary 4.3 5.1
Chief Executives 4.3 4.8
Emergency Medicine Physicians 4.3 4.4
Engineering Teachers, Postsecondary 4.3 4.8
Social Work Teachers, Postsecondary 4.3 5.1
Advertising Sales Agents 4.1 4.0
Agricultural Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 5.0
Air Traffic Controllers 4.1 4.0
Architecture Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 5.1
Biological Science Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 4.9
Business Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 5.1
Career/Technical Education Teachers, Secondary School 4.1 4.1
Communications Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 4.6
Emergency Management Directors 4.1 4.3
Farm and Home Management Educators 4.1 4.1
Fundraisers 4.1 4.1
Human Resources Managers 4.1 4.5
Instructional Coordinators 4.1 4.1
Judges, Magistrate Judges, and Magistrates 4.1 4.4
Law Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 5.4
Mental Health Counselors 4.1 4.6
Park Naturalists 4.1 4.1
Philosophy and Religion Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 5.0
Preventive Medicine Physicians 4.1 4.6
Public Safety Telecommunicators 4.1 4.0
Sales Engineers 4.1 4.1
Special Education Teachers, Elementary School 4.1 3.9
Speech-Language Pathologists 4.1 4.6
Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselors 4.1 4.0
Acute Care Nurses 4.0 3.8
Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses 4.0 3.8
Advertising and Promotions Managers 4.0 3.9
Allergists and Immunologists 4.0 3.8

Showing the top 40 of 786 occupations where this is important.

How AI is used by roles that need Speech Clarity

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). 61.5% of the 786 roles where this is important carry observed AI-usage data (483 roles).

Across those roles, 46.8% of AI conversations are people working with AI and 32.0% hand a task to AI , with an average autonomy of 3.57 / 5.

Collaboration pattern Share What it means
directive 29.8% AI does it; you give the instruction
task iteration 24.5% you and AI go back and forth
learning 19.3% you ask AI to explain or teach
validation 3.0% you do it; AI checks your work
feedback loop 2.2% 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 4.0 63.2% 4.0/5
Biological Science Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 63.2% 4.0/5
Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary 4.6 65.2% 3.0/5
Editors 3.9 68.2% 4.0/5
Social Work Teachers, Postsecondary 4.3 67.2% 3.5/5
Recreation and Fitness Studies Teachers, Postsecondary 4.0 66.2% 3.3/5
Philosophy and Religion Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 66.8% 3.3/5
Education Teachers, Postsecondary 4.4 65.3% 3.5/5
Educational, Guidance, School, and Vocational Counselors 3.8 70.6% 4.0/5
Atmospheric, Earth, Marine, and Space Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary 4.3 66.3% 4.0/5
Instructional Coordinators 4.1 53.1% 4.0/5
Communications Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 65.7% 3.0/5

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 Speech Clarity matters most across the economy. Employment reach is the share of an industry's workers in occupations that significantly rely on Speech Clarity (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 79.3% of workers are in occupations that significantly rely on Speech Clarity (measured across 67 industries).

Sectors with the most such workers

Sector Workers Employment reach
Health Care and Social Assistance 17,128,660 74.1%
Retail Trade 13,742,380 88.1%
Accommodation and Food Services 11,741,220 82.5%
Educational Services 11,037,440 80.9%
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services 9,821,560 91.2%
Manufacturing 8,215,300 64.4%
Construction 6,981,250 86.0%
Finance and Insurance 5,873,810 94.3%
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 5,543,720 61.4%
Transportation and Warehousing 5,261,160 71.2%
Wholesale Trade 4,819,160 79.8%
Other Services (except Public Administration) 3,188,100 72.0%

Industries where it is most concentrated

Industry Level Concentration Employment reach
Pharmacies and Drug Retailers National industry 1.25× 98.8%
Veterinary Services National industry 1.25× 98.9%
Offices of Chiropractors National industry 1.25× 99.5%
Insurance Agencies and Brokerages National industry 1.24× 98.2%
Offices of Optometrists National industry 1.23× 97.4%
Labor Unions and Similar Labor Organizations National industry 1.23× 97.4%
Offices of Physical, Occupational and Speech Therapists, and Audiologists National industry 1.21× 96.0%
Radio Broadcasting Stations National industry 1.21× 95.8%
Sporting Goods Retailers National industry 1.2× 95.0%
Poured Concrete Foundation and Structure Contractors National industry 1.2× 95.1%
Television Broadcasting Stations National industry 1.2× 95.4%
Finance and Insurance Sector 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
Speaking Basic skill 765
Speech Recognition Ability 765
Active Listening Basic skill 769
Oral Expression Ability 778
Oral Comprehension Ability 781
Problem Sensitivity Ability 765
Written Comprehension Ability 714
Critical Thinking Basic skill 739
Near Vision Ability 779
Information Ordering Ability 752
Deductive Reasoning Ability 737
Reading Comprehension Basic skill 701

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. "Speech Clarity." 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/speech-clarity

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Speech Clarity. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/abilities/speech-clarity

BibTeX
@misc{singulariki-speech-clarity,
  title  = {Speech Clarity},
  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/speech-clarity}
}

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