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Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance vs Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance and Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service 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.”

Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$48,880
$38,370
Employment · BLS OEWS
211,000
35,730
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
75th pct
88th pct

At a glance

Dimension Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service
Median pay $48,880 $38,370
Employment 211,000 35,730
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Declining (-0.9%) Declining (-26.3%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 18,500 2,800
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 High · 75th pct High · 88th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 88th pct · 49% of tasks 92nd pct · 54% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index Augmentation-leaning (50.0%) Automation-leaning (43.1%)
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman Yes Yes

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: Customer and Personal Service, Public Safety and Security, Active Listening, Speaking, Oral Comprehension, Oral Expression, Speech Recognition, Speech Clarity, Monitoring, Coordination, Administration and Management, Reading Comprehension, Time Management, Deductive Reasoning, Near Vision, Administrative, Written Comprehension, Written Expression, Problem Sensitivity, English Language, Personnel and Human Resources, Selective Attention, Writing, Critical Thinking, Social Perceptiveness, Service Orientation, Complex Problem Solving, Judgment and Decision Making, Information Ordering, Computers and Electronics, Active Learning, Inductive Reasoning, Category Flexibility, Perceptual Speed, Time Sharing, Far Vision.

Specific to Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance

  • Transportation
  • Systems Analysis
  • Fluency of Ideas
  • Speed of Closure

Specific to Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service

  • Telecommunications
  • Auditory Attention
  • Communications and Media
  • 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

Shared: Spreadsheet software , Office suite software , Electronic mail software , Word processing software , Data base user interface and query software , Presentation software , Operating system software , Enterprise resource planning ERP software .

Specific to Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance

Specific to Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance or Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service — 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. "Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance vs Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service." 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/dispatchers-except-police-fire-and-ambulance-vs-switchboard-operators-including-answering-service

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance vs Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/dispatchers-except-police-fire-and-ambulance-vs-switchboard-operators-including-answering-service

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-dispatchers-except-police-fire-and-ambulance-vs-switchboard-operators-including-answering-service,
  title  = {Dispatchers, Except Police, Fire, and Ambulance vs Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service},
  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/dispatchers-except-police-fire-and-ambulance-vs-switchboard-operators-including-answering-service}
}

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