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Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels vs Ship 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 Ship 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 Ship Engineers
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$85,540
$101,320
Employment · BLS OEWS
35,390
8,580
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
42nd pct
4th pct

At a glance

Dimension Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels Ship Engineers
Median pay $85,540 $101,320
Employment 35,390 8,580
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+0.5%) About average (+1.6%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 4,300 1,100
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 occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
AI exposure · published exposure studies Moderate · 42nd pct Low · 4th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 55th pct · 29% of tasks 42nd pct · 23% 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, Operation and Control, Written Comprehension, Arm-Hand Steadiness, Control Precision, Near Vision, Speech Clarity, Speaking, Monitoring, Inductive Reasoning, Information Ordering, Speech Recognition, Mechanical, Active Listening, Critical Thinking, Operations Monitoring, Judgment and Decision Making, Written Expression, Flexibility of Closure, Manual Dexterity, English Language, Reading Comprehension, Complex Problem Solving, Category Flexibility, Visualization, Selective Attention.

Specific to Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels

  • Spatial Orientation
  • Far Vision
  • Perceptual Speed
  • Depth Perception
  • Law and Government
  • Geography
  • Coordination
  • Management of Personnel Resources

Specific to Ship Engineers

  • Equipment Maintenance
  • Troubleshooting
  • Repairing
  • Engineering and Technology
  • Active Learning
  • Systems Analysis
  • Mathematics
  • Computers and Electronics

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 , Operating system software , Spreadsheet software , Electronic mail software , Presentation software , Word processing software , Facilities management software , Data base user interface and query software .

Specific to Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels

Specific to Ship Engineers

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels or Ship 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 Ship 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-ship-engineers

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels vs Ship 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-ship-engineers

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-captains-mates-and-pilots-of-water-vessels-vs-ship-engineers,
  title  = {Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels vs Ship 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-ship-engineers}
}

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