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Chefs and Head Cooks vs Food Preparation Workers

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Chefs and Head Cooks and Food Preparation Workers 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 Food Preparation Workers
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$60,990
$34,220
Employment · BLS OEWS
182,320
888,770
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
51st pct
44th pct

At a glance

Dimension Chefs and Head Cooks Food Preparation Workers
Median pay $60,990 $34,220
Employment 182,320 888,770
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Growing fast (+7.1%) Declining (-3.4%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 24,400 148,000
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 · 44th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 47th pct · 25% of tasks 11th pct · 13% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index Automation-leaning (38.9%) Augmentation-leaning (55.4%)
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, Production and Processing, Monitoring, Oral Comprehension, Information Ordering, Customer and Personal Service, Speaking, Social Perceptiveness, Time Management, Deductive Reasoning, Speech Clarity, Critical Thinking, Service Orientation, Inductive Reasoning, Near Vision, Speech Recognition, Administration and Management, Active Listening, Judgment and Decision Making, Mathematics, Reading Comprehension, Written Comprehension, Selective Attention, English Language, Quality Control Analysis, Category Flexibility.

Specific to Chefs and Head Cooks

  • Management of Personnel Resources
  • Personnel and Human Resources
  • Instructing
  • Education and Training
  • Active Learning
  • Originality
  • Learning Strategies
  • Complex Problem Solving

Specific to Food Preparation Workers

  • Trunk Strength
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness
  • Manual Dexterity
  • Finger Dexterity
  • Stamina
  • Extent Flexibility
  • Far Vision
  • Static Strength

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 , Data base user interface and query software .

Specific to Chefs and Head Cooks

Specific to Food Preparation Workers

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Chefs and Head Cooks or Food Preparation Workers — 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 Food Preparation Workers." 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-food-preparation-workers

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Chefs and Head Cooks vs Food Preparation Workers. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/chefs-and-head-cooks-vs-food-preparation-workers

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-chefs-and-head-cooks-vs-food-preparation-workers,
  title  = {Chefs and Head Cooks vs Food Preparation Workers},
  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-food-preparation-workers}
}

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