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Food Servers, Nonrestaurant vs Cooks, Restaurant

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Food Servers, Nonrestaurant and Cooks, Restaurant 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 Servers, Nonrestaurant Cooks, Restaurant
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$34,460
$36,830
Employment · BLS OEWS
271,780
1,452,130
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
37th pct
60th pct

At a glance

Dimension Food Servers, Nonrestaurant Cooks, Restaurant
Median pay $34,460 $36,830
Employment 271,780 1,452,130
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+3.0%) Growing fast (+14.9%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 48,000 250,700
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 Moderate · 37th pct Moderate · 60th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 47th pct · 26% of tasks 29th pct · 18% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — Automation-leaning (49.8%)
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman No 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, Oral Comprehension, Oral Expression, Near Vision, Active Listening, Speaking, Food Production, Selective Attention, Speech Recognition, Speech Clarity, Reading Comprehension, Critical Thinking, Social Perceptiveness, Coordination, Time Management, Problem Sensitivity, Deductive Reasoning, Inductive Reasoning, Information Ordering, Arm-Hand Steadiness, Manual Dexterity, Trunk Strength, Monitoring, Judgment and Decision Making, Written Comprehension, Far Vision, Extent Flexibility.

Specific to Food Servers, Nonrestaurant

  • Service Orientation
  • Administration and Management
  • Education and Training
  • Public Safety and Security
  • Mathematics
  • Psychology
  • Written Expression
  • Static Strength

Specific to Cooks, Restaurant

  • Perceptual Speed
  • Time Sharing
  • Finger Dexterity
  • Control Precision
  • Visual Color Discrimination
  • Category Flexibility
  • Active Learning
  • Visualization

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: Web page creation and editing software , Office suite software , Electronic mail software , Data base user interface and query software .

Specific to Food Servers, Nonrestaurant

Specific to Cooks, Restaurant

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Food Servers, Nonrestaurant or Cooks, Restaurant — 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 Servers, Nonrestaurant vs Cooks, Restaurant." 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-servers-nonrestaurant-vs-cooks-restaurant

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Food Servers, Nonrestaurant vs Cooks, Restaurant. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/food-servers-nonrestaurant-vs-cooks-restaurant

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-food-servers-nonrestaurant-vs-cooks-restaurant,
  title  = {Food Servers, Nonrestaurant vs Cooks, Restaurant},
  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-servers-nonrestaurant-vs-cooks-restaurant}
}

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