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Cooks, Fast Food vs Chefs and Head Cooks

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

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

Cooks, Fast Food Chefs and Head Cooks
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$30,160
$60,990
Employment · BLS OEWS
668,230
182,320
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
65th pct
51st pct

At a glance

Dimension Cooks, Fast Food Chefs and Head Cooks
Median pay $30,160 $60,990
Employment 668,230 182,320
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Declining (-13.5%) Growing fast (+7.1%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 82,100 24,400
Typical education · O*NET Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not. 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 · 65th pct Moderate · 51st pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 29th pct · 18% of tasks 47th pct · 25% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index Augmentation-leaning (45.8%) Automation-leaning (38.9%)
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: Oral Comprehension, Administration and Management, Customer and Personal Service, Information Ordering, Near Vision, English Language, Active Listening, Service Orientation, Speech Recognition, Written Comprehension, Oral Expression, Problem Sensitivity, Deductive Reasoning, Selective Attention, Speech Clarity, Speaking, Social Perceptiveness, Coordination, Reading Comprehension, Critical Thinking, Monitoring, Time Management, Active Learning, Judgment and Decision Making, Inductive Reasoning, Production and Processing.

Specific to Cooks, Fast Food

  • Transportation
  • Communications and Media
  • Public Safety and Security
  • Manual Dexterity
  • Trunk Strength
  • Economics and Accounting
  • Time Sharing
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness

Specific to Chefs and Head Cooks

  • Food Production
  • Management of Personnel Resources
  • Personnel and Human Resources
  • Instructing
  • Mathematics
  • Education and Training
  • Originality
  • Learning Strategies

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 , Electronic mail software , Word processing software .

Specific to Cooks, Fast Food

Specific to Chefs and Head Cooks

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Cooks, Fast Food or Chefs and Head Cooks — 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. "Cooks, Fast Food vs Chefs and Head Cooks." 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/cooks-fast-food-vs-chefs-and-head-cooks

APA

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

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-cooks-fast-food-vs-chefs-and-head-cooks,
  title  = {Cooks, Fast Food vs Chefs and Head Cooks},
  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/cooks-fast-food-vs-chefs-and-head-cooks}
}

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