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Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas vs Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas and Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas 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.”

Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$59,600
$57,980
Employment · BLS OEWS
17,410
44,120
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
9th pct
14th pct

At a glance

Dimension Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas
Median pay $59,600 $57,980
Employment 17,410 44,120
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+2.9%) About average (+0.4%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 1,700 4,100
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 Low · 9th pct Low · 14th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk — 30th pct · 19% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — —
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman — 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: Operations Monitoring, Control Precision, Operation and Control, Arm-Hand Steadiness, Multilimb Coordination, Reaction Time, Manual Dexterity, Mechanical, Near Vision, Perceptual Speed, Administration and Management, Transportation, Public Safety and Security, Critical Thinking, Equipment Maintenance, Oral Comprehension, Problem Sensitivity, Deductive Reasoning, Visualization, Far Vision, Hearing Sensitivity, Monitoring, Inductive Reasoning, Active Listening, Complex Problem Solving, Troubleshooting, Oral Expression, Flexibility of Closure.

Specific to Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas

  • Depth Perception
  • Rate Control
  • Information Ordering
  • Finger Dexterity
  • Visual Color Discrimination
  • Design
  • Speaking
  • Coordination

Specific to Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas

  • Mathematics
  • Customer and Personal Service
  • Selective Attention
  • Engineering and Technology
  • Judgment and Decision Making
  • Auditory Attention
  • Speech Recognition
  • Speech Clarity

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 , Word processing software .

Specific to Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas

Specific to Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas or Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas — 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. "Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas vs Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas." 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/earth-drillers-except-oil-and-gas-vs-service-unit-operators-oil-and-gas

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas vs Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/earth-drillers-except-oil-and-gas-vs-service-unit-operators-oil-and-gas

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-earth-drillers-except-oil-and-gas-vs-service-unit-operators-oil-and-gas,
  title  = {Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas vs Service Unit Operators, Oil and Gas},
  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/earth-drillers-except-oil-and-gas-vs-service-unit-operators-oil-and-gas}
}

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