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Fast Food and Counter Workers vs Cooks, Short Order

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Fast Food and Counter Workers and Cooks, Short Order 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.”

Fast Food and Counter Workers Cooks, Short Order
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$30,480
$35,620
Employment · BLS OEWS
3,780,930
150,420
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
56th pct
47th pct

At a glance

Dimension Fast Food and Counter Workers Cooks, Short Order
Median pay $30,480 $35,620
Employment 3,780,930 150,420
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+6.1%) Declining (-5.6%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 904,300 20,600
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 · 56th pct Moderate · 47th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk — 29th pct · 18% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — Automation-leaning (31.8%)
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: Customer and Personal Service, English Language, Food Production, Active Listening, Social Perceptiveness, Coordination, Service Orientation, Oral Comprehension, Oral Expression, Near Vision, Speech Recognition, Speech Clarity, Monitoring, Time Sharing, Trunk Strength, Information Ordering, Manual Dexterity, Speaking, Problem Sensitivity, Selective Attention, Arm-Hand Steadiness, Critical Thinking, Far Vision, Production and Processing, Reading Comprehension, Judgment and Decision Making, Time Management, Auditory Attention, Deductive Reasoning, Memorization, Finger Dexterity.

Specific to Fast Food and Counter Workers

  • Mathematics
  • Computers and Electronics
  • Administration and Management
  • Sales and Marketing
  • Administrative
  • Education and Training
  • Personnel and Human Resources
  • Foreign Language

Specific to Cooks, Short Order

  • Control Precision
  • Category Flexibility
  • Written Comprehension
  • Extent Flexibility
  • Visual Color Discrimination
  • Complex Problem Solving
  • Inductive Reasoning
  • Perceptual Speed

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: Point of sale POS software .

Specific to Fast Food and Counter Workers

Specific to Cooks, Short Order

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Fast Food and Counter Workers or Cooks, Short Order — 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. "Fast Food and Counter Workers vs Cooks, Short Order." 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/fast-food-and-counter-workers-vs-cooks-short-order

APA

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

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-fast-food-and-counter-workers-vs-cooks-short-order,
  title  = {Fast Food and Counter Workers vs Cooks, Short Order},
  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/fast-food-and-counter-workers-vs-cooks-short-order}
}

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