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Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand vs Maintenance Workers, Machinery

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand and Maintenance Workers, Machinery 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.”

Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand Maintenance Workers, Machinery
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$38,940
$60,500
Employment · BLS OEWS
2,982,530
56,540
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
12th pct
30th pct

At a glance

Dimension Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand Maintenance Workers, Machinery
Median pay $38,940 $60,500
Employment 2,982,530 56,540
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+1.5%) Declining (-2.8%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 384,300 4,800
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 Low · 12th pct Low · 30th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 6th pct · 12% of tasks 24th pct · 17% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — —
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: Static Strength, Trunk Strength, Administration and Management, Multilimb Coordination, Manual Dexterity, Extent Flexibility, Near Vision, Production and Processing, Coordination, Oral Expression, Problem Sensitivity, Deductive Reasoning, Selective Attention, Arm-Hand Steadiness, Control Precision, English Language, Active Listening, Information Ordering, Finger Dexterity, Reading Comprehension, Speaking, Inductive Reasoning, Visualization.

Specific to Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand

  • Customer and Personal Service
  • Public Safety and Security
  • Transportation
  • Oral Comprehension
  • Stamina
  • Mathematics
  • Dynamic Strength
  • Far Vision

Specific to Maintenance Workers, Machinery

  • Mechanical
  • Operations Monitoring
  • Equipment Maintenance
  • Troubleshooting
  • Repairing
  • Operation and Control
  • Quality Control Analysis
  • Design

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: Internet browser software , Word processing software , Spreadsheet software , Office suite software , Electronic mail software , Data base user interface and query software , Enterprise resource planning ERP software .

Specific to Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand

Specific to Maintenance Workers, Machinery

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand or Maintenance Workers, Machinery — 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. "Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand vs Maintenance Workers, Machinery." 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; 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/laborers-and-freight-stock-and-material-movers-hand-vs-maintenance-workers-machinery

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand vs Maintenance Workers, Machinery. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/laborers-and-freight-stock-and-material-movers-hand-vs-maintenance-workers-machinery

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-laborers-and-freight-stock-and-material-movers-hand-vs-maintenance-workers-machinery,
  title  = {Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand vs Maintenance Workers, Machinery},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; 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/laborers-and-freight-stock-and-material-movers-hand-vs-maintenance-workers-machinery}
}

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