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Transportation Engineers vs Highway Maintenance Workers

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Transportation Engineers and Highway Maintenance Workers 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.”

Transportation Engineers Highway Maintenance Workers
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$99,590
$49,070
Employment · BLS OEWS
355,410
151,750
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
69th pct
3rd pct

At a glance

Dimension Transportation Engineers Highway Maintenance Workers
Median pay $99,590 $49,070
Employment 355,410 151,750
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+5.0%) About average (+3.0%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 23,600 12,300
Typical education · O*NET Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not. Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.
AI exposure · published exposure studies High · 69th pct Low · 3rd pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 57th pct · 30% of tasks 2nd pct · 9% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index Augmentation-leaning (23.3%) —
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman Yes 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: Transportation, Building and Construction, Speaking, Oral Comprehension, Oral Expression, Problem Sensitivity, Deductive Reasoning, Inductive Reasoning, Category Flexibility, Complex Problem Solving, Information Ordering, Active Listening, Visualization, Near Vision, English Language, Coordination, Administration and Management.

Specific to Transportation Engineers

  • Engineering and Technology
  • Design
  • Mathematics
  • Reading Comprehension
  • Writing
  • Critical Thinking
  • Written Comprehension
  • Written Expression

Specific to Highway Maintenance Workers

  • Public Safety and Security
  • Control Precision
  • Multilimb Coordination
  • Operation and Control
  • Operations Monitoring
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness
  • Static Strength
  • Manual Dexterity

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 , Presentation software , Electronic mail software , Word processing software , Data base user interface and query software , Internet browser software .

Specific to Transportation Engineers

Specific to Highway Maintenance Workers

    Full profiles

    This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Transportation Engineers or Highway Maintenance Workers — 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. "Transportation Engineers vs Highway Maintenance Workers." 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/transportation-engineers-vs-highway-maintenance-workers

    APA

    Singulariki. (2026). Transportation Engineers vs Highway Maintenance Workers. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/transportation-engineers-vs-highway-maintenance-workers

    BibTeX 
    @misc{singulariki-transportation-engineers-vs-highway-maintenance-workers,
  title  = {Transportation Engineers vs Highway Maintenance Workers},
  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/transportation-engineers-vs-highway-maintenance-workers}
}

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