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Trunk Strength

Ability · O*NET work requirement

The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.

In the O*NET occupational database, Trunk Strength 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 235 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 Trunk Strength

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
Dancers 4.1 4.8
Brickmasons and Blockmasons 4.0 4.1
Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse 4.0 3.9
Reinforcing Iron and Rebar Workers 3.9 3.8
Stonemasons 3.9 3.9
Structural Iron and Steel Workers 3.9 3.9
Baggage Porters and Bellhops 3.8 3.1
Cement Masons and Concrete Finishers 3.8 4.3
Choreographers 3.8 3.8
Fence Erectors 3.8 3.9
Foundry Mold and Coremakers 3.8 3.1
Helpers--Roofers 3.8 4.1
Manufactured Building and Mobile Home Installers 3.8 3.8
Massage Therapists 3.8 3.4
Millwrights 3.8 3.4
Roofers 3.8 3.8
Tire Repairers and Changers 3.8 3.5
Cabinetmakers and Bench Carpenters 3.6 3.3
Carpet Installers 3.6 3.6
Drywall and Ceiling Tile Installers 3.6 3.3
Exercise Trainers and Group Fitness Instructors 3.6 4.0
Fiberglass Laminators and Fabricators 3.6 3.0
Floor Sanders and Finishers 3.6 3.9
Helpers--Brickmasons, Blockmasons, Stonemasons, and Tile and Marble Setters 3.6 3.8
Mechanical Door Repairers 3.6 3.3
Adhesive Bonding Machine Operators and Tenders 3.5 3.1
Carpenters 3.5 3.5
Derrick Operators, Oil and Gas 3.5 3.8
Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers 3.5 3.0
Firefighters 3.5 3.9
Fishing and Hunting Workers 3.5 3.4
Helpers--Extraction Workers 3.5 3.9
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand 3.5 3.8
Orderlies 3.5 3.4
Plasterers and Stucco Masons 3.5 3.6
Rail Car Repairers 3.5 3.8
Terrazzo Workers and Finishers 3.5 3.8
Tire Builders 3.5 3.3
Tree Trimmers and Pruners 3.5 3.9
Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists 3.4 3.1

Showing the top 40 of 235 occupations where this is important.

How AI is used by roles that need Trunk Strength

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). 37.4% of the 235 roles where this is important carry observed AI-usage data (88 roles).

Across those roles, 35.9% of AI conversations are people working with AI and 30.3% hand a task to AI , with an average autonomy of 3.52 / 5.

Collaboration pattern Share What it means
directive 24.5% AI does it; you give the instruction
learning 23.7% you ask AI to explain or teach
task iteration 11.2% you and AI go back and forth
feedback loop 5.7% AI does it, then adjusts from your feedback
validation 0.9% 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
Correctional Officers and Jailers 3.0 52.7% 3.0/5
Choreographers 3.8 54.5% 4.0/5
Exercise Physiologists 3.0 63.3% 4.0/5
Cooks, Restaurant 3.0 36.7% 4.0/5
Textile Knitting and Weaving Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders 3.3 27.2% 4.0/5
Textile Cutting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders 3.1 27.2% 4.0/5
Physical Therapists 3.1 58.3% 4.0/5
Patternmakers, Wood 3.0 30.1% 2.5/5
Industrial Machinery Mechanics 3.1 22.8% 4.0/5
Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers 3.0 54.2% 3.5/5
Adapted Physical Education Specialists 3.0 55.1% 3.0/5
Occupational Therapy Assistants 3.0 70.8% 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 Trunk Strength matters most across the economy. Employment reach is the share of an industry's workers in occupations that significantly rely on Trunk Strength (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 26.7% of workers are in occupations that significantly rely on Trunk Strength (measured across 67 industries).

Sectors with the most such workers

Sector Workers Employment reach
Accommodation and Food Services 7,765,920 54.6%
Construction 4,478,060 55.1%
Retail Trade 4,164,790 26.7%
Manufacturing 4,097,450 32.1%
Transportation and Warehousing 3,613,560 48.9%
Health Care and Social Assistance 3,582,140 15.5%
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 3,469,240 38.4%
Wholesale Trade 1,653,400 27.4%
Other Services (except Public Administration) 1,430,750 32.3%
Educational Services 1,015,950 7.4%
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation 893,060 33.8%
Real Estate and Rental and Leasing 645,540 27.3%

Industries where it is most concentrated

Industry Level Concentration Employment reach
Full-Service Restaurants National industry 3.1× 82.7%
Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting Sector 2.85× 76.1%
Painting and Wall Covering Contractors National industry 2.84× 75.9%
Masonry Contractors National industry 2.79× 74.4%
Drywall and Insulation Contractors National industry 2.69× 71.9%
Landscaping Services National industry 2.66× 71.1%
Poured Concrete Foundation and Structure Contractors National industry 2.53× 67.5%
Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors National industry 2.42× 64.6%
Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors National industry 2.42× 64.6%
Exterminating and Pest Control Services National industry 2.33× 62.3%
Roofing Contractors National industry 2.27× 60.7%
Other Building Equipment Contractors National industry 2.18× 58.2%

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
Multilimb Coordination Ability 187
Static Strength Ability 153
Extent Flexibility Ability 137
Manual Dexterity Ability 208
Arm-Hand Steadiness Ability 208
Control Precision Ability 171
Finger Dexterity Ability 182
Operation and Control Cross-functional skill 120
Reaction Time Ability 101
Operations Monitoring Cross-functional skill 134
Mechanical Knowledge 127
Visualization Ability 149

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. "Trunk Strength." 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/trunk-strength

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Trunk Strength. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/abilities/trunk-strength

BibTeX
@misc{singulariki-trunk-strength,
  title  = {Trunk Strength},
  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/trunk-strength}
}

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