# Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas

> Operate a variety of drills such as rotary, churn, and pneumatic to tap subsurface water and salt deposits, to remove core samples during mineral exploration or soil testing, and to facilitate the use of explosives in mining or construction. Includes horizontal and earth boring machine operators.

- **SOC code:** 47-5023.00
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/roles/role-47-5023-00
- **Also known as:** Blast Hole Driller, Drill Operator, Driller, Well Driller, Diamond Driller, Hard Rock Drill Operator, Highwall Drill Operator, Rock Drill Operator
- **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):
- Fabricate well casings.
- Operate controls to stabilize machines and to position and align drills.
- Start, stop, and control drilling speed of machines and insertion of casings into holes.
- Pour water into wells, or pump water or slush into wells to cool drill bits and to remove drillings.
- Regulate air pressure, rotary speed, and downward pressure, according to the type of rock or concrete being drilled.
- Select and attach drill bits and drill rods, adding more rods as hole depths increase, and changing drill bits as needed.
- Drive or guide truck-mounted equipment into position, level and stabilize rigs, and extend telescoping derricks.
- Create and lay out designs for drill and blast patterns.
- Operate machines to flush earth cuttings or to blow dust from holes.
- Place and install screens, casings, pumps, and other well fixtures to develop wells.
- Verify depths and alignments of boring positions.
- Perform routine maintenance and upgrade work on machines and equipment, such as replacing parts, building up drill bits, and lubricating machinery.

## Skills, tools, capabilities

**Knowledge, skills & abilities** (O*NET, highest importance first):
- Operations Monitoring _(transferable_skill)_
- Control Precision _(ability)_
- Operation and Control _(transferable_skill)_
- Arm-Hand Steadiness _(ability)_
- Multilimb Coordination _(ability)_
- Reaction Time _(ability)_
- Manual Dexterity _(ability)_
- Depth Perception _(ability)_
- Mechanical _(knowledge)_
- Rate Control _(ability)_
- Near Vision _(ability)_
- Perceptual Speed _(ability)_

**Skills in demand:**
- Depth Perception _(Common Skill)_
- Visualization _(Specialized Skill)_
- Information Ordering _(Specialized Skill)_
- Equipment Maintenance _(Specialized Skill)_
- Deductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_
- Critical Thinking _(Common Skill)_
- Inductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_
- Finger Dexterity _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Word _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Excel _(Common Skill)_
- Equipment Selection _(Specialized Skill)_
- Complex Problem Solving _(Common Skill)_

**Tools & technology:**
- Microsoft Excel _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Office software _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Word _(hot technology)_
- Global positioning system GPS software

## AI exposure & outlook

- **AI task-overlap index:** 13th percentile (Low) across all occupations — composite of current-era exposure studies (ai-exposure-index-v1).
- **LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou):** 23rd percentile (Low) — source: eloundou_gamma.
- **AI assistant applicability (Microsoft):** 9th percentile (Low) — source: microsoft_applicability.
- **Projected employment (BLS 2024–34):** 2.9% growth (About average); 1.7k annual openings; 18.3k → 18.8k jobs.
- **Pay & employment (BLS OEWS, May 2024):** median $59,600; 17,410 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

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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-47-5023-00_