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Athletes and Sports Competitors vs Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials

Side-by-side · O*NET · BLS · AI-exposure research · Anthropic Economic Index

A factual, source-backed comparison of Athletes and Sports Competitors and Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials on the dimensions both occupations carry. Every figure is a position within an independent published dataset — not a verdict on which job is better, safer, or more “future-proof.”

Athletes and Sports Competitors Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$62,360
$38,820
Employment · BLS OEWS
14,370
15,080
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
74th pct
25th pct

At a glance

Dimension Athletes and Sports Competitors Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials
Median pay $62,360 $38,820
Employment 14,370 15,080
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+5.5%) About average (+5.7%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 2,100 4,600
Typical education · O*NET Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not. Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.
AI exposure · published exposure studies High · 74th pct Low · 25th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 42nd pct · 23% of tasks 71st pct · 37% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — Augmentation-leaning (61.4%)
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman Yes No

Pay and employment are BLS OEWS estimates; outlook and openings are BLS 2024–2034 projections; AI exposure and observed-use figures come from separate research and reflect exposure and usage, not predictions that either job will disappear. Compare like with like.

Skills

Shared: Oral Comprehension, Speaking, Oral Expression, Problem Sensitivity, Stamina, Active Listening, Critical Thinking, Administration and Management, English Language, Coordination, Speech Clarity, Near Vision, Deductive Reasoning, Inductive Reasoning, Far Vision, Speech Recognition, Monitoring, Judgment and Decision Making, Written Comprehension, Information Ordering, Trunk Strength, Education and Training, Reading Comprehension, Social Perceptiveness, Selective Attention, Active Learning.

Specific to Athletes and Sports Competitors

  • Static Strength
  • Explosive Strength
  • Dynamic Strength
  • Customer and Personal Service
  • Gross Body Coordination
  • Personnel and Human Resources
  • Multilimb Coordination
  • Extent Flexibility

Specific to Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials

  • Flexibility of Closure
  • Perceptual Speed
  • Time Sharing
  • Learning Strategies
  • Complex Problem Solving
  • Memorization
  • Speed of Closure
  • Instructing

Knowledge, skills & abilities O*NET rates as important for each occupation. “Shared” are common to both; the columns list what is distinctive to each (top by the order O*NET surfaces).

Tools & technology

Shared: Spreadsheet software , Office suite software , Presentation software , Word processing software , Electronic mail software , Internet browser software , Video creation and editing software .

Specific to Athletes and Sports Competitors

Specific to Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Athletes and Sports Competitors or Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials — tasks, the full skill graph, tools, work context, preparation, wages by percentile, industries, AI exposure and the AI work map.

More comparisons

Related occupations you can place side by side on the same sourced scale.

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. "Athletes and Sports Competitors vs Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/compare/athletes-and-sports-competitors-vs-umpires-referees-and-other-sports-officials

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Athletes and Sports Competitors vs Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/athletes-and-sports-competitors-vs-umpires-referees-and-other-sports-officials

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-athletes-and-sports-competitors-vs-umpires-referees-and-other-sports-officials,
  title  = {Athletes and Sports Competitors vs Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/compare/athletes-and-sports-competitors-vs-umpires-referees-and-other-sports-officials}
}

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