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Chefs and Head Cooks vs Cooks, Restaurant

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Chefs and Head Cooks 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.”

Chefs and Head Cooks Cooks, Restaurant
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$60,990
$36,830
Employment · BLS OEWS
182,320
1,452,130
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
51st pct
60th pct

At a glance

Dimension Chefs and Head Cooks Cooks, Restaurant
Median pay $60,990 $36,830
Employment 182,320 1,452,130
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Growing fast (+7.1%) Growing fast (+14.9%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 24,400 250,700
Typical education · O*NET Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree. Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.
AI exposure · published exposure studies Moderate · 51st pct Moderate · 60th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 47th pct · 25% of tasks 29th pct · 18% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index Automation-leaning (38.9%) Automation-leaning (49.8%)
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: Coordination, Food Production, Oral Expression, Problem Sensitivity, Monitoring, Oral Comprehension, Information Ordering, Customer and Personal Service, Speaking, Social Perceptiveness, Time Management, Deductive Reasoning, Speech Clarity, Critical Thinking, Inductive Reasoning, Near Vision, Speech Recognition, Active Listening, Judgment and Decision Making, Reading Comprehension, Written Comprehension, Active Learning, Selective Attention, English Language, Fluency of Ideas, Category Flexibility, Visualization.

Specific to Chefs and Head Cooks

  • Production and Processing
  • Management of Personnel Resources
  • Service Orientation
  • Personnel and Human Resources
  • Administration and Management
  • Instructing
  • Mathematics
  • Education and Training

Specific to Cooks, Restaurant

  • Manual Dexterity
  • Perceptual Speed
  • Time Sharing
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness
  • Finger Dexterity
  • Control Precision
  • Trunk Strength
  • Visual Color Discrimination

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 , Electronic mail software , Web page creation and editing software , Word processing software , Data base user interface and query software , Materials requirements planning logistics and supply chain software .

Specific to Chefs and Head Cooks

Specific to Cooks, Restaurant

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Chefs and Head Cooks 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. "Chefs and Head Cooks 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/chefs-and-head-cooks-vs-cooks-restaurant

APA

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

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-chefs-and-head-cooks-vs-cooks-restaurant,
  title  = {Chefs and Head Cooks 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/chefs-and-head-cooks-vs-cooks-restaurant}
}

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