# Fast Food and Counter Workers

> Perform duties such as taking orders and serving food and beverages. Serve customers at counter or from a steam table. May take payment. May prepare food and beverages.

- **SOC code:** 35-3023.00
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/roles/role-35-3023-00
- **Also known as:** Cafeteria Worker, Counter Worker, Food Service Worker, Server, Cafe Server, Cafeteria Server, Deli Worker (Delicatessen Worker), Dietary Aide
- **Frame:** "AI exposure" means task overlap (how codifiable the work is), not jobs lost or a forecast. Every figure below is traced to a named public dataset.

## What this work is

**Core tasks** (O*NET):
- Accept payment from customers, and make change as necessary.
- Serve customers in eating places that specialize in fast service and inexpensive carry-out food.
- Perform personnel activities, such as supervising and training employees.
- Request and record customer orders, and compute bills, using cash registers, multi-counting machines, or pencil and paper.
- Balance receipts and payments in cash registers.
- Add relishes and garnishes to food orders, according to instructions.
- Communicate with customers regarding orders, comments, and complaints.
- Serve food, beverages, or desserts to customers in such settings as take-out counters of restaurants or lunchrooms, business or industrial establishments, hotel rooms, and cars.
- Monitor and order supplies or food items, and restock as necessary to maintain inventory.
- Perform cleaning duties, such as sweeping, mopping, and washing dishes, to keep equipment and facilities sanitary.
- Distribute food to servers.
- Brew coffee and tea, and fill containers with requested beverages.

**Emerging tasks** (O*NET):
- Check and monitor food temperatures while cooking.

## Skills, tools, capabilities

**Knowledge, skills & abilities** (O*NET, highest importance first):
- Customer and Personal Service _(knowledge)_
- English Language _(knowledge)_
- Food Production _(knowledge)_
- Mathematics _(knowledge)_
- Active Listening _(essential_skill)_
- Social Perceptiveness _(transferable_skill)_
- Coordination _(transferable_skill)_
- Service Orientation _(transferable_skill)_
- Oral Comprehension _(ability)_
- Oral Expression _(ability)_
- Near Vision _(ability)_
- Speech Recognition _(ability)_

**Skills in demand:**
- English Language _(Common Skill)_
- Mathematics _(Common Skill)_
- Speech Recognition _(Specialized Skill)_
- Social Perceptiveness _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Windows _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Excel _(Common Skill)_
- Facebook _(Specialized Skill)_
- Active Listening _(Common Skill)_
- Information Ordering _(Specialized Skill)_
- Critical Thinking _(Common Skill)_
- Time Management _(Common Skill)_
- Reading Comprehension _(Common Skill)_

**Tools & technology:**
- Facebook _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Excel _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Office software _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Windows _(hot technology)_
- Aldelo Systems Aldelo for Restaurants Pro
- Compris software
- Foodman Home-Delivery
- Intuit QuickBooks Point of Sale
- Menu and nutrition database software
- MICROS Systems HSI Profits Series
- NCR Advanced Checkout Solution
- NCR NeighborhoodPOS

## AI exposure & outlook

- **AI task-overlap index:** 34th percentile (Moderate) across all occupations — composite of current-era exposure studies (ai-exposure-index-v1).
- **LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou):** 15th percentile (Low) — source: eloundou_gamma.
- **AI assistant applicability (Microsoft):** 56th percentile (Moderate) — source: microsoft_applicability.
- **Projected employment (BLS 2024–34):** 6.1% growth (About average); 904.3k annual openings; 3,796k → 4,029.2k jobs.
- **Pay & employment (BLS OEWS, May 2024):** median $30,480; 3,780,930 employed.

## 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/
- **Anthropic Economic Index** (v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27)) — Anthropic. https://www.anthropic.com/economic-index
- **Microsoft “Working with AI”** (working-with-ai) — Microsoft Research. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/
- **“GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.)** (arXiv 2303.10130) — OpenAI / academic. https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130

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_Generated from Singulariki's joined dataset; data snapshot 2026-06-02T21:00:32.945303+00:00. https://singulariki.com/roles/role-35-3023-00_