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Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining vs Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining and Earth Drillers, Except 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.”

Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$52,550
$59,600
Employment · BLS OEWS
34,210
17,410
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
30th pct
9th pct

At a glance

Dimension Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas
Median pay $52,550 $59,600
Employment 34,210 17,410
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Declining (-0.4%) About average (+2.9%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 3,100 1,700
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 · 30th pct Low · 9th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk — —
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — —
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman — —

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: Operation and Control, Control Precision, Multilimb Coordination, Depth Perception, Manual Dexterity, Reaction Time, Arm-Hand Steadiness, Rate Control, Far Vision, Operations Monitoring, Near Vision, Finger Dexterity, Hearing Sensitivity, Mechanical, Monitoring, Oral Comprehension, Oral Expression, Problem Sensitivity, Active Listening, Speaking, Critical Thinking, Coordination, Complex Problem Solving, Equipment Selection, Equipment Maintenance, Troubleshooting, Written Comprehension.

Specific to Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining

  • Response Orientation
  • Spatial Orientation
  • Auditory Attention
  • Peripheral Vision
  • Building and Construction
  • Speech Recognition
  • Reading Comprehension
  • Active Learning

Specific to Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas

  • Perceptual Speed
  • Administration and Management
  • Transportation
  • Public Safety and Security
  • Deductive Reasoning
  • Information Ordering
  • Visualization
  • Inductive Reasoning

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 Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining

Specific to Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining or Earth Drillers, Except 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. "Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining vs Earth Drillers, Except 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. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/compare/excavating-and-loading-machine-and-dragline-operators-surface-mining-vs-earth-drillers-except-oil-and-gas

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining vs Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/excavating-and-loading-machine-and-dragline-operators-surface-mining-vs-earth-drillers-except-oil-and-gas

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-excavating-and-loading-machine-and-dragline-operators-surface-mining-vs-earth-drillers-except-oil-and-gas,
  title  = {Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining vs Earth Drillers, Except 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. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/compare/excavating-and-loading-machine-and-dragline-operators-surface-mining-vs-earth-drillers-except-oil-and-gas}
}

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