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Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels vs Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels and Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers 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.”

Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$85,540
$226,600
Employment · BLS OEWS
35,390
99,300
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
42nd pct
31st pct

At a glance

Dimension Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers
Median pay $85,540 $226,600
Employment 35,390 99,300
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+0.5%) About average (+3.9%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 4,300 11,700
Typical education · O*NET Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree. Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
AI exposure · published exposure studies Moderate · 42nd pct Low · 31st pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 55th pct · 29% of tasks 51st pct · 27% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — —
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman No 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: Transportation, Oral Comprehension, Oral Expression, Public Safety and Security, Problem Sensitivity, Deductive Reasoning, Spatial Orientation, Far Vision, Operation and Control, Written Comprehension, Arm-Hand Steadiness, Control Precision, Near Vision, Speech Clarity, Speaking, Monitoring, Inductive Reasoning, Information Ordering, Perceptual Speed, Speech Recognition, Mechanical, Active Listening, Critical Thinking, Operations Monitoring, Judgment and Decision Making, Flexibility of Closure, Depth Perception, English Language, Geography, Reading Comprehension, Selective Attention, Time Sharing.

Specific to Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels

  • Written Expression
  • Manual Dexterity
  • Law and Government
  • Coordination
  • Complex Problem Solving
  • Management of Personnel Resources
  • Category Flexibility
  • Visualization

Specific to Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers

  • Response Orientation
  • Reaction Time
  • Rate Control
  • Multilimb Coordination
  • Time Management
  • Peripheral Vision
  • Active Learning
  • Hearing Sensitivity

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: Office suite software , Spreadsheet software , Electronic mail software , Presentation software , Word processing software , Route navigation software , Analytical or scientific software , Data base user interface and query software , Calendar and scheduling software .

Specific to Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels

Specific to Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels or Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers — 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. "Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels vs Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers." 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/captains-mates-and-pilots-of-water-vessels-vs-airline-pilots-copilots-and-flight-engineers

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels vs Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/captains-mates-and-pilots-of-water-vessels-vs-airline-pilots-copilots-and-flight-engineers

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-captains-mates-and-pilots-of-water-vessels-vs-airline-pilots-copilots-and-flight-engineers,
  title  = {Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels vs Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers},
  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/captains-mates-and-pilots-of-water-vessels-vs-airline-pilots-copilots-and-flight-engineers}
}

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