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Cooks, Fast Food vs Food Preparation Workers

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

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

Cooks, Fast Food Food Preparation Workers
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$30,160
$34,220
Employment · BLS OEWS
668,230
888,770
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
65th pct
44th pct

At a glance

Dimension Cooks, Fast Food Food Preparation Workers
Median pay $30,160 $34,220
Employment 668,230 888,770
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Declining (-13.5%) Declining (-3.4%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 82,100 148,000
Typical education · O*NET Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not. Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.
AI exposure · published exposure studies Moderate · 65th pct Moderate · 44th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 29th pct · 18% of tasks 11th pct · 13% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index Augmentation-leaning (45.8%) 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: 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, Manual Dexterity, Trunk Strength, Speech Clarity, Speaking, Social Perceptiveness, Coordination, Reading Comprehension, Critical Thinking, Monitoring, Time Sharing, Arm-Hand Steadiness, Time Management, Stamina, Judgment and Decision Making, Inductive Reasoning, Production and Processing.

Specific to Cooks, Fast Food

  • Transportation
  • Communications and Media
  • Public Safety and Security
  • Economics and Accounting
  • Sales and Marketing
  • Active Learning
  • Written Expression
  • Computers and Electronics

Specific to Food Preparation Workers

  • Food Production
  • Finger Dexterity
  • Category Flexibility
  • Extent Flexibility
  • Far Vision
  • Static Strength
  • Visual Color Discrimination
  • Quality Control Analysis

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 .

Specific to Cooks, Fast Food

Specific to Food Preparation Workers

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Cooks, Fast Food 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. "Cooks, Fast Food 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/cooks-fast-food-vs-food-preparation-workers

APA

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

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-cooks-fast-food-vs-food-preparation-workers,
  title  = {Cooks, Fast Food 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/cooks-fast-food-vs-food-preparation-workers}
}

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