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Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining vs Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators

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 Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators 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 Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$52,550
$46,390
Employment · BLS OEWS
34,210
805,770
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
30th pct
2nd pct

At a glance

Dimension Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators
Median pay $52,550 $46,390
Employment 34,210 805,770
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Declining (-0.4%) About average (+1.1%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 3,100 76,400
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 · 2nd pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk — 33rd pct · 20% 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: Operation and Control, Control Precision, Multilimb Coordination, Depth Perception, Manual Dexterity, Reaction Time, Arm-Hand Steadiness, Response Orientation, Rate Control, Far Vision, Operations Monitoring, Spatial Orientation, Near Vision, Finger Dexterity, Auditory Attention, Peripheral Vision, Monitoring, Oral Comprehension, Oral Expression, Problem Sensitivity, Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, Speaking, Critical Thinking, Coordination, Equipment Maintenance, Troubleshooting, Time Management.

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

  • Hearing Sensitivity
  • Mechanical
  • Building and Construction
  • Speech Recognition
  • Active Learning
  • Social Perceptiveness
  • Persuasion
  • Complex Problem Solving

Specific to Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators

  • Deductive Reasoning
  • Information Ordering
  • Perceptual Speed
  • Visualization
  • Selective Attention
  • Static Strength
  • Trunk Strength
  • 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 .

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

Specific to Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining or Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators — 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 Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators." 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/excavating-and-loading-machine-and-dragline-operators-surface-mining-vs-industrial-truck-and-tractor-operators

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining vs Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators. 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-industrial-truck-and-tractor-operators

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-excavating-and-loading-machine-and-dragline-operators-surface-mining-vs-industrial-truck-and-tractor-operators,
  title  = {Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining vs Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators},
  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/excavating-and-loading-machine-and-dragline-operators-surface-mining-vs-industrial-truck-and-tractor-operators}
}

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