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Baristas vs Cooks, Restaurant

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Baristas and Cooks, Restaurant 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.”

Baristas Cooks, Restaurant
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$30,480
$36,830
Employment · BLS OEWS
3,780,930
1,452,130
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
56th pct
60th pct

At a glance

Dimension Baristas Cooks, Restaurant
Median pay $30,480 $36,830
Employment 3,780,930 1,452,130
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+6.1%) Growing fast (+14.9%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 904,300 250,700
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 Moderate · 56th pct Moderate · 60th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk — 29th pct · 18% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — Automation-leaning (49.8%)
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman — 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: Customer and Personal Service, Oral Comprehension, Oral Expression, Active Listening, Speech Clarity, Speaking, Speech Recognition, English Language, Near Vision, Social Perceptiveness, Problem Sensitivity, Information Ordering, Time Sharing, Arm-Hand Steadiness, Finger Dexterity, Reading Comprehension, Monitoring, Coordination, Written Comprehension, Manual Dexterity, Control Precision, Trunk Strength, Critical Thinking, Deductive Reasoning, Selective Attention, Food Production, Category Flexibility, Perceptual Speed, Multilimb Coordination, Extent Flexibility, Active Learning, Time Management.

Specific to Baristas

  • Service Orientation
  • Sales and Marketing
  • Hearing Sensitivity
  • Persuasion
  • Operation and Control
  • Written Expression
  • Flexibility of Closure
  • Writing

Specific to Cooks, Restaurant

  • Visual Color Discrimination
  • Visualization
  • Far Vision
  • Judgment and Decision Making
  • Fluency of Ideas
  • Stamina
  • Operations Monitoring
  • Inductive Reasoning

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 , Word processing software .

Specific to Baristas

    Specific to Cooks, Restaurant

    Full profiles

    This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Baristas or Cooks, Restaurant — 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. "Baristas vs Cooks, Restaurant." 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/baristas-vs-cooks-restaurant

    APA

    Singulariki. (2026). Baristas vs Cooks, Restaurant. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/baristas-vs-cooks-restaurant

    BibTeX 
    @misc{singulariki-baristas-vs-cooks-restaurant,
  title  = {Baristas vs Cooks, Restaurant},
  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/baristas-vs-cooks-restaurant}
}

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