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Textile, Apparel, and Furnishings Workers

Occupation group · SOC minor group

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Textile, Apparel, and Furnishings Workers is one of the 98 SOC minor groups — the middle tier of the U.S. Standard Occupational Classification, sitting between the broad job families and individual occupations. It belongs to the Production Occupations family and contains 15 detailed occupations employing about 464,330 people, with a median wage of $37,660 across them. BLS projects employment in this group to change -2.9% between 2024 and 2034 , with roughly 66,800 openings a year.

Occupations in this group

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 14 occupations in Textile, Apparel, and Furnishings Workers. Overlap measures shared tasks with AI, not automation. Lower overlap · higher pay Higher overlap · higher pay Higher overlap · lower pay Lower overlap · lower pay Pressers, Textile, Garment, and Related Materials Textile Winding, Twisting, and Drawing Out Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders Extruding and Forming Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Synthetic and Glass Fibers Tailors, Dressmakers, and Custom Sewers Fabric and Apparel Patternmakers AI task-overlap percentile → ↑ Median pay
Each occupation in this group 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
Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Workers $33,800 195,360 +5.4% 5%
Sewing Machine Operators $36,000 109,590 -10.8% 2%
Pressers, Textile, Garment, and Related Materials $33,880 26,830 -13.5% 2%
Upholsterers $46,190 20,990 -1.8% 9%
Textile Winding, Twisting, and Drawing Out Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders $37,660 20,600 -9.0% 7%
Tailors, Dressmakers, and Custom Sewers $40,860 16,290 -4.5% 7%
Extruding and Forming Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Synthetic and Glass Fibers $44,980 14,900 -1.1% 9%
Textile Knitting and Weaving Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders $38,260 14,530 -11.2% 13%
Textile, Apparel, and Furnishings Workers, All Other $37,010 14,450 -9.4%
Textile Cutting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders $37,940 8,960 -11.7% 14%
Shoe and Leather Workers and Repairers $35,950 7,640 -3.8% 6%
Textile Bleaching and Dyeing Machine Operators and Tenders $37,320 5,820 -10.1% 12%
Shoe Machine Operators and Tenders $38,160 3,270 -3.7% 2%
Fabric and Apparel Patternmakers $67,670 2,860 -10.2% 19%
Sewers, Hand $33,760 2,240 -7.0% 4%

AI exposure across this group

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 group it is 8% — 11th percentile of the 98 groups. The independent Felten/Raj/Seamans AI Occupational Exposure index averages -0.99 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. "Textile, Apparel, and Furnishings Workers." 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/occupation-groups/textile-apparel-and-furnishings-workers

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Textile, Apparel, and Furnishings Workers. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/occupation-groups/textile-apparel-and-furnishings-workers

BibTeX
@misc{singulariki-textile-apparel-and-furnishings-workers,
  title  = {Textile, Apparel, and Furnishings Workers},
  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/occupation-groups/textile-apparel-and-furnishings-workers}
}

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