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Transportation and Material Moving Occupations

Job family · SOC major group

Transportation and Material Moving Occupations is one of the 23 SOC major groups — the top level of the U.S. Standard Occupational Classification, the official scheme every detailed occupation rolls up to. It contains 57 occupations employing about 16,069,250 people, with a median wage of $52,095 across its occupations. BLS projects employment in this family to change +3.5% between 2024 and 2034 , with roughly 2,158,100 openings a year.

Occupation groups in this family

This family divides into 7 SOC minor groups — tighter clusters of related occupations. Ranked by U.S. employment.

Occupations in this family

Exposure quadrant: AI task-overlap percentile vs Median pay AI task-overlap (horizontal) versus median pay (vertical), each as a percentile across all scored occupations, for 40 occupations in Transportation and Material Moving Occupations. Overlap measures shared tasks with AI, not automation. Lower overlap · higher pay Higher overlap · higher pay Higher overlap · lower pay Lower overlap · lower pay Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators Dredge Operators Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand Cleaners of Vehicles and Equipment Motorboat Operators Sailors and Marine Oilers Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders Wellhead Pumpers Railroad Brake, Signal, and Switch Operators and Locomotive Firers Conveyor Operators and Tenders Ship Engineers Light Truck Drivers Locomotive Engineers Subway and Streetcar Operators Shuttle Drivers and Chauffeurs Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers Bus Drivers, School Commercial Pilots AI task-overlap percentile → ↑ Median pay
Each occupation in this family with both an AI task-overlap score and a wage, plotted by task-overlap percentile (horizontal) and median-pay percentile (vertical). Overlap measures shared tasks with AI, not automation.

Ranked by U.S. employment (BLS OEWS May 2024). Projected change is BLS 2024–34; AI exposure is the OpenAI "GPTs are GPTs" human beta rating (share of an occupation's tasks where an LLM with tools could cut the time to do them by at least half).

Occupation Median pay Employment 2024–34 AI exposure
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand $38,940 2,982,530 +1.5% 2%
Recycling and Reclamation Workers $38,940 2,982,530 +1.5% 2%
Stockers and Order Fillers $37,090 2,779,530 +8.5% 19%
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers $57,440 2,070,480 +4.0% 17%
Light Truck Drivers $44,140 994,410 +7.3% 25%
Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators $46,390 805,770 +1.1% 3%
Packers and Packagers, Hand $35,580 601,440 -5.4% 10%
Driver/Sales Workers $37,130 417,420 +8.8% 14%
Bus Drivers, School $47,040 387,920 +0.2% 18%
Cleaners of Vehicles and Equipment $35,270 373,960 +3.9% 0%
Shuttle Drivers and Chauffeurs $36,670 229,630 +6.7% 17%
Bus Drivers, Transit and Intercity $57,440 148,980 +4.3% 17%
Refuse and Recyclable Material Collectors $48,350 139,180 +0.9% 23%
Parking Attendants $34,600 134,650 +3.0% 13%
Flight Attendants $67,130 130,110 +9.2% 15%
Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers $226,600 99,300 +3.9% 23%
Automotive and Watercraft Service Attendants $34,850 98,270 -1.0% 7%
Commercial Pilots $122,670 51,830 +5.1% 22%
Motor Vehicle Operators, All Other $36,260 50,330 +6.0% —
Machine Feeders and Offbearers $39,700 46,690 -13.0% 9%
Railroad Conductors and Yardmasters $74,080 42,710 +1.1% 21%
Crane and Tower Operators $66,370 42,000 +3.0% 3%
Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels $85,540 35,390 +0.5% 21%
Locomotive Engineers $77,400 31,990 +0.7% 23%
Sailors and Marine Oilers $49,610 31,360 +2.3% 1%
Aircraft Service Attendants $41,540 27,310 +5.1% 11%
Conveyor Operators and Tenders $41,230 26,060 -3.4% 14%
Passenger Attendants $37,560 25,340 +4.7% 14%
Material Moving Workers, All Other $41,690 25,190 +4.3% —
Aviation Inspectors $85,750 23,320 +1.7% 13%
Transportation Inspectors $85,750 23,320 +1.7% 13%
Transportation Vehicle, Equipment and Systems Inspectors, Except Aviation $85,750 23,320 +1.7% 13%
Air Traffic Controllers $144,580 22,400 +1.2% 31%
Taxi Drivers $36,220 17,510 +11.1% 25%
Wellhead Pumpers $70,010 17,350 -4.7% 0%
Airfield Operations Specialists $56,750 16,640 +4.2% 33%
Pump Operators, Except Wellhead Pumpers $60,020 12,600 +2.6% 17%
Railroad Brake, Signal, and Switch Operators and Locomotive Firers $65,480 12,460 +1.0% 4%
Ambulance Drivers and Attendants, Except Emergency Medical Technicians $34,330 12,080 -1.3% 5%
Transportation Workers, All Other $39,630 10,960 +3.8% —
Tank Car, Truck, and Ship Loaders $58,070 10,920 +4.3% 13%
Aircraft Cargo Handling Supervisors $63,940 10,160 +5.2% 0%
Subway and Streetcar Operators $84,830 9,200 +3.4% 20%
Ship Engineers $101,320 8,580 +1.6% 14%
Traffic Technicians $58,480 7,580 +3.7% 39%
Gas Compressor and Gas Pumping Station Operators $71,510 5,110 -1.3% 8%
Rail Yard Engineers, Dinkey Operators, and Hostlers $58,030 3,300 +0.3% 6%
Bridge and Lock Tenders $58,490 2,720 -3.3% 16%
Hoist and Winch Operators $52,310 2,480 -1.1% 10%
Motorboat Operators $51,880 2,380 +1.4% 13%
Rail Transportation Workers, All Other $49,330 1,520 +3.9% —
Dredge Operators $48,430 1,030 +1.2% 0%
First-Line Supervisors of Helpers, Laborers, and Material Movers, Hand — — — 47%
First-Line Supervisors of Material-Moving Machine and Vehicle Operators — — — 31%
First-Line Supervisors of Passenger Attendants — — — 32%
First-Line Supervisors of Transportation Workers, All Other — — — —
Recycling Coordinators — — — 47%

AI exposure across this family

Two published studies estimate how exposed each occupation is to AI. The OpenAI "GPTs are GPTs" study rates the share of an occupation's tasks an LLM (with tools) could speed up by half or more; averaged across this family it is 16% — 34th percentile of the 23 families. The independent Felten/Raj/Seamans AI Occupational Exposure index averages -0.75 here.

Exposure measures where AI could assist tasks — it is not a prediction that these jobs will be automated. High exposure often means augmentation (faster work), and many high-exposure occupations are also projected to grow.

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 and Material Moving Occupations." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/job-families/transportation-and-material-moving-occupations

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Transportation and Material Moving Occupations. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/job-families/transportation-and-material-moving-occupations

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-transportation-and-material-moving-occupations,
  title  = {Transportation and Material Moving Occupations},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/job-families/transportation-and-material-moving-occupations}
}

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