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Cooks, Short Order vs Chefs and Head Cooks

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Cooks, Short Order 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, Short Order Chefs and Head Cooks
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$35,620
$60,990
Employment · BLS OEWS
150,420
182,320
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
47th pct
51st pct

At a glance

Dimension Cooks, Short Order Chefs and Head Cooks
Median pay $35,620 $60,990
Employment 150,420 182,320
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Declining (-5.6%) Growing fast (+7.1%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 20,600 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 · 47th 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 Automation-leaning (31.8%) 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: Food Production, Oral Comprehension, Near Vision, Customer and Personal Service, English Language, Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, Time Management, Information Ordering, Speaking, Coordination, Service Orientation, Problem Sensitivity, Selective Attention, Critical Thinking, Monitoring, Oral Expression, Category Flexibility, Speech Clarity, Written Comprehension, Deductive Reasoning, Speech Recognition, Social Perceptiveness, Complex Problem Solving, Judgment and Decision Making, Inductive Reasoning, Production and Processing.

Specific to Cooks, Short Order

  • Trunk Strength
  • Manual Dexterity
  • Time Sharing
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness
  • Finger Dexterity
  • Control Precision
  • Far Vision
  • Extent Flexibility

Specific to Chefs and Head Cooks

  • Management of Personnel Resources
  • Personnel and Human Resources
  • Administration and Management
  • Instructing
  • Mathematics
  • Education and Training
  • Active Learning
  • Originality

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

Specific to Cooks, Short Order

Specific to Chefs and Head Cooks

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Cooks, Short Order 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, Short Order 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-short-order-vs-chefs-and-head-cooks

APA

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

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-cooks-short-order-vs-chefs-and-head-cooks,
  title  = {Cooks, Short Order 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-short-order-vs-chefs-and-head-cooks}
}

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