# Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers

> Facilitate food service. Clean tables; remove dirty dishes; replace soiled table linens; set tables; replenish supply of clean linens, silverware, glassware, and dishes; supply service bar with food; and serve items such as water, condiments, and coffee to patrons.

- **SOC code:** 35-9011.00
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/roles/role-35-9011-00
- **Also known as:** Barback, Bus Boy, Bus Person, Busser, Buffet Attendant, Dining Room Attendant, Food Service Aide, Food Service Helper
- **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):
- Serve ice water, coffee, rolls, or butter to patrons.
- Run cash registers.
- Wipe tables or seats with dampened cloths or replace dirty tablecloths.
- Scrape and stack dirty dishes and carry dishes and other tableware to kitchens for cleaning.
- Set tables with clean linens, condiments, or other supplies.
- Greet and seat customers.
- Clean up spilled food or drink or broken dishes and remove empty bottles and trash.
- Maintain adequate supplies of items, such as clean linens, silverware, glassware, dishes, or trays.
- Locate items requested by customers.
- Fill beverage or ice dispensers.
- Carry food, dishes, trays, or silverware from kitchens or supply departments to serving counters.
- Perform serving, cleaning, or stocking duties in establishments, such as cafeterias or dining rooms, to facilitate customer service.

**Emerging tasks** (O*NET):
- Prepare food, such as sandwiches, for customers.

## Skills, tools, capabilities

**Knowledge, skills & abilities** (O*NET, highest importance first):
- Customer and Personal Service _(knowledge)_
- Trunk Strength _(ability)_
- Food Production _(knowledge)_
- English Language _(knowledge)_
- Arm-Hand Steadiness _(ability)_
- Manual Dexterity _(ability)_
- Stamina _(ability)_
- Sales and Marketing _(knowledge)_
- Active Listening _(essential_skill)_
- Coordination _(transferable_skill)_
- Service Orientation _(transferable_skill)_
- Oral Comprehension _(ability)_

**Skills in demand:**
- English Language _(Common Skill)_
- Speech Recognition _(Specialized Skill)_
- Microsoft Windows _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Excel _(Common Skill)_
- Information Ordering _(Specialized Skill)_
- Facebook _(Specialized Skill)_
- Active Listening _(Common Skill)_
- Social Perceptiveness _(Common Skill)_
- Finger Dexterity _(Common Skill)_
- Critical Thinking _(Common Skill)_
- Deductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_
- Inductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_

**Tools & technology:**
- Facebook _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Excel _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Windows _(hot technology)_
- Cafe Cartel Systems
- Plexis Software Plexis POS
- RestaurantPlus PRO

## AI exposure & outlook

- **AI task-overlap index:** 3rd percentile (Low) across all occupations — composite of current-era exposure studies (ai-exposure-index-v1).
- **Overall AI exposure (Felten et al.):** 1st percentile (Low) — source: felten_aioe.
- **LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou):** 3rd percentile (Low) — source: eloundou_gamma.
- **AI assistant applicability (Microsoft):** 15th percentile (Low) — source: microsoft_applicability.
- **Frey–Osborne (2013, historical computerization estimate):** 81st percentile — kept separate from current-era studies.
- **Remote-capable (Dingel–Neiman):** no — task structure, not who actually works remote.
- **Projected employment (BLS 2024–34):** 6.3% growth (About average); 99.6k annual openings; 527.4k → 560.6k jobs.
- **Pay & employment (BLS OEWS, May 2024):** median $32,670; 522,010 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/
- **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
- **AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE)** (Felten, Raj & Seamans) — academic. https://github.com/AIOE-Data/AIOE
- **Frey & Osborne (2013)** (frey-osborne-automation) — academic. https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/publications/the-future-of-employment/
- **Dingel & Neiman (2020)** (dingel-neiman-workathome) — academic. https://github.com/jdingel/DingelNeiman-workathome

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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-35-9011-00_