# Plant and System Operators

> SOC minor group 51-8000 within Production Occupations — 12 detailed occupations.

- **SOC minor group:** 51-8000
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/occupation-groups/plant-and-system-operators
- **Frame:** "AI exposure" means task overlap, not jobs lost. Figures below are aggregates over the group's member occupations, each traced to a named public dataset.

## Scale & pay

- **Employment (BLS OEWS, May 2024):** 365,100.
- **Median wage:** $90,470.
- **Projected growth (BLS 2024–34):** -6.0%.
- **Annual openings:** 32.5.

## AI exposure

- **AI task-overlap (mean across member occupations):** 24th percentile (Low) — Eloundou GPT-overlap + Felten AIOE; task overlap, not automation.

## Member occupations

- Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators (https://singulariki.com/roles/role-51-8031-00) — $58,260; 0th percentile overlap
- Petroleum Pump System Operators, Refinery Operators, and Gaugers (https://singulariki.com/roles/role-51-8093-00) — $97,540; 0th percentile overlap
- Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators (https://singulariki.com/roles/role-51-8021-00) — $75,190; 0th percentile overlap
- Biomass Plant Technicians (https://singulariki.com/roles/role-51-8013-03) — $99,670; 0th percentile overlap
- Hydroelectric Plant Technicians (https://singulariki.com/roles/role-51-8013-04) — $99,670; 0th percentile overlap
- Power Plant Operators (https://singulariki.com/roles/role-51-8013-00) — $99,670; 0th percentile overlap
- Chemical Plant and System Operators (https://singulariki.com/roles/role-51-8091-00) — $73,540; 0th percentile overlap
- Biofuels Processing Technicians (https://singulariki.com/roles/role-51-8099-01) — $61,710; 0th percentile overlap
- Plant and System Operators, All Other (https://singulariki.com/roles/role-51-8099-00) — $61,710; 0th percentile overlap
- Gas Plant Operators (https://singulariki.com/roles/role-51-8092-00) — $83,400; 0th percentile overlap
- Power Distributors and Dispatchers (https://singulariki.com/roles/role-51-8012-00) — $107,240; 0th percentile overlap
- Nuclear Power Reactor Operators (https://singulariki.com/roles/role-51-8011-00) — $122,610; 0th percentile overlap

## Sources

- **O*NET** (30.3) — U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)** (May 2024) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS Employment Projections** (2024–2034) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **“GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.)** (arXiv 2303.10130) — OpenAI / academic. https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130
- **AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE)** (Felten, Raj & Seamans) — academic. https://github.com/AIOE-Data/AIOE

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_Generated from Singulariki's joined dataset; data snapshot 2026-06-02T20:31:11.516731+00:00. https://singulariki.com/occupation-groups/plant-and-system-operators_