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Food Preparation Workers vs Cooks, Private Household

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Food Preparation Workers and Cooks, Private Household 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.”

Food Preparation Workers Cooks, Private Household
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$34,220
$44,530
Employment · BLS OEWS
888,770
900
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
44th pct
83rd pct

At a glance

Dimension Food Preparation Workers Cooks, Private Household
Median pay $34,220 $44,530
Employment 888,770 900
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Declining (-3.4%) About average (+5.1%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 148,000 5,300
Typical education · O*NET Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not. Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
AI exposure · published exposure studies Moderate · 44th pct High · 83rd pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 11th pct · 13% of tasks 29th pct · 18% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index Augmentation-leaning (55.4%) Automation-leaning (50.0%)
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman No 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, Active Listening, Service Orientation, Time Management, Oral Comprehension, Trunk Strength, Near Vision, Food Production, Speaking, Coordination, Oral Expression, Arm-Hand Steadiness, Manual Dexterity, Finger Dexterity, Speech Recognition, Critical Thinking, Information Ordering, Production and Processing, Reading Comprehension, Social Perceptiveness, Problem Sensitivity, Deductive Reasoning, Category Flexibility, Selective Attention, Monitoring, Inductive Reasoning, English Language, Judgment and Decision Making, Administration and Management, Written Comprehension, Multilimb Coordination, Mathematics.

Specific to Food Preparation Workers

  • Speech Clarity
  • Stamina
  • Extent Flexibility
  • Far Vision
  • Static Strength
  • Visual Color Discrimination
  • Quality Control Analysis
  • Time Sharing

Specific to Cooks, Private Household

  • Sales and Marketing
  • Fluency of Ideas
  • Complex Problem Solving
  • Originality
  • Writing
  • Active Learning
  • Management of Material Resources
  • Written Expression

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: Data base user interface and query software , Video creation and editing software .

Specific to Food Preparation Workers

Specific to Cooks, Private Household

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Food Preparation Workers or Cooks, Private Household — 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. "Food Preparation Workers vs Cooks, Private Household." 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/food-preparation-workers-vs-cooks-private-household

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Food Preparation Workers vs Cooks, Private Household. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/food-preparation-workers-vs-cooks-private-household

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-food-preparation-workers-vs-cooks-private-household,
  title  = {Food Preparation Workers vs Cooks, Private Household},
  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/food-preparation-workers-vs-cooks-private-household}
}

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