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Cooks, Short Order vs Food Preparation Workers

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Cooks, Short Order 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, Short Order Food Preparation Workers
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$35,620
$34,220
Employment · BLS OEWS
150,420
888,770
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
47th pct
44th pct

At a glance

Dimension Cooks, Short Order Food Preparation Workers
Median pay $35,620 $34,220
Employment 150,420 888,770
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Declining (-5.6%) Declining (-3.4%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 20,600 148,000
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 · 47th 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 Automation-leaning (31.8%) 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: Food Production, Oral Comprehension, Near Vision, Customer and Personal Service, Trunk Strength, English Language, Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, Time Management, Information Ordering, Manual Dexterity, Speaking, Coordination, Service Orientation, Problem Sensitivity, Selective Attention, Time Sharing, Arm-Hand Steadiness, Finger Dexterity, Critical Thinking, Monitoring, Oral Expression, Category Flexibility, Far Vision, Speech Clarity, Written Comprehension, Deductive Reasoning, Extent Flexibility, Visual Color Discrimination, Speech Recognition, Social Perceptiveness, Judgment and Decision Making, Inductive Reasoning, Production and Processing, Multilimb Coordination.

Specific to Cooks, Short Order

  • Control Precision
  • Complex Problem Solving
  • Perceptual Speed
  • Auditory Attention
  • Memorization

Specific to Food Preparation Workers

  • Stamina
  • Administration and Management
  • Static Strength
  • Quality Control Analysis
  • Mathematics

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 Food Preparation Workers

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Cooks, Short Order 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, Short Order 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-short-order-vs-food-preparation-workers

APA

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

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-cooks-short-order-vs-food-preparation-workers,
  title  = {Cooks, Short Order 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-short-order-vs-food-preparation-workers}
}

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