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Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials vs Athletes and Sports Competitors

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

A factual, source-backed comparison of Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials and Athletes and Sports Competitors 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.”

Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials Athletes and Sports Competitors
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$38,820
$62,360
Employment · BLS OEWS
15,080
14,370
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
25th pct
74th pct

At a glance

Dimension Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials Athletes and Sports Competitors
Median pay $38,820 $62,360
Employment 15,080 14,370
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+5.7%) About average (+5.5%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 4,600 2,100
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 Low · 25th pct High · 74th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 71st pct · 37% of tasks 42nd pct · 23% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index Augmentation-leaning (61.4%) —
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: Oral Expression, Far Vision, Oral Comprehension, Near Vision, Speaking, Problem Sensitivity, Speech Clarity, English Language, Critical Thinking, Active Listening, Judgment and Decision Making, Deductive Reasoning, Speech Recognition, Monitoring, Selective Attention, Reading Comprehension, Active Learning, Social Perceptiveness, Coordination, Written Comprehension, Inductive Reasoning, Trunk Strength, Education and Training, Information Ordering, Stamina, Administration and Management.

Specific to Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials

  • Flexibility of Closure
  • Perceptual Speed
  • Time Sharing
  • Learning Strategies
  • Complex Problem Solving
  • Memorization
  • Speed of Closure
  • Instructing

Specific to Athletes and Sports Competitors

  • Static Strength
  • Explosive Strength
  • Dynamic Strength
  • Customer and Personal Service
  • Gross Body Coordination
  • Personnel and Human Resources
  • Multilimb Coordination
  • Extent Flexibility

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 , Electronic mail software , Presentation software , Word processing software , Video creation and editing software , Internet browser software .

Specific to Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials

Specific to Athletes and Sports Competitors

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials or Athletes and Sports Competitors — 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. "Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials vs Athletes and Sports Competitors." 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/umpires-referees-and-other-sports-officials-vs-athletes-and-sports-competitors

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials vs Athletes and Sports Competitors. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/umpires-referees-and-other-sports-officials-vs-athletes-and-sports-competitors

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-umpires-referees-and-other-sports-officials-vs-athletes-and-sports-competitors,
  title  = {Umpires, Referees, and Other Sports Officials vs Athletes and Sports Competitors},
  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/umpires-referees-and-other-sports-officials-vs-athletes-and-sports-competitors}
}

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