Fiberglass Laminators and Fabricators

AI & job outlook

What today's research says about this occupation's exposure to AI, how AI is actually being used in it, and where employment is headed. These are positions within published studies — measures of exposure and usage, not predictions that this job will disappear.

Exposure to current AI

Each study uses its own scale, so the raw scores are not comparable across rows — the percentile (this job's rank among all U.S. occupations with data) is the comparable figure, and sizes the bars.

OpenAI's exposure study scores tasks three ways: with a language model alone (α 0.0), with simple added tooling (β 0.0), and including AI-powered software (γ 0.0). Higher means more of the job's tasks could be done at least twice as fast — not that they will be automated away.

Job outlook

Independent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment projection for 2024–2034 — a labor-market forecast, not an AI-impact forecast.

“Annual openings” counts new jobs plus replacements for workers who leave the occupation, so it can be large even when growth is modest.

Tasks

All 16 tasks O*NET lists for this occupation, ordered by importance. Each links to its own page with AI-exposure and observed-use detail.

• Release air bubbles and smooth seams, using rollers. Core · importance 4.5
• Spray chopped fiberglass, resins, and catalysts onto prepared molds or dies using pneumatic spray guns with chopper attachments. Core · importance 4.5
• Apply layers of plastic resin to mold surfaces prior to placement of fiberglass mats, repeating layers until products have the desired thicknesses and plastics have jelled. Supplemental · importance 4.4
• Mix catalysts into resins, and saturate cloth and mats with mixtures, using brushes. Core · importance 4.4
• Check completed products for conformance to specifications and for defects by measuring with rulers or micrometers, by checking them visually, or by tapping them to detect bubbles or dead spots. Core · importance 4.4
• Inspect, clean, and assemble molds before beginning work. Supplemental · importance 4.3
• Pat or press layers of saturated mat or cloth into place on molds, using brushes or hands, and smooth out wrinkles and air bubbles with hands or squeegees. Core · importance 4.3
• Select precut fiberglass mats, cloth, and wood-bracing materials as required by projects being assembled. Core · importance 4.2
• Cure materials by letting them set at room temperature, placing them under heat lamps, or baking them in ovens. Supplemental · importance 4.2
• Apply lacquers and waxes to mold surfaces to facilitate assembly and removal of laminated parts. Supplemental · importance 4.1
• Bond wood reinforcing strips to decks and cabin structures of watercraft, using resin-saturated fiberglass. Core · importance 4.0
• Mask off mold areas not to be laminated, using cellophane, wax paper, masking tape, or special sprays containing mold-release substances. Supplemental · importance 4.0
• Repair or modify damaged or defective glass-fiber parts, checking thicknesses, densities, and contours to ensure a close fit after repair. Supplemental · importance 4.0
• Check all dies, templates, and cutout patterns to be used in the manufacturing process to ensure that they conform to dimensional data, photographs, blueprints, samples, or customer specifications. Supplemental · importance 3.9
• Trim excess materials from molds, using hand shears or trimming knives. Core · importance 3.8
• Trim cured materials by sawing them with diamond-impregnated cutoff wheels. Supplemental · importance 3.7

Work activities

• Smooth surfaces of objects or equipment.
• Place materials into molds.
• Select production input materials.
• Mix substances to create chemical solutions.
• Apply water or solutions to fabrics or apparel.
• Apply adhesives to construction materials.
• Measure dimensions of completed products or workpieces to verify conformance to specifications.
• Trim excess material from workpieces.
• Repair parts or assemblies.
• Load items into ovens or furnaces.
• Apply parting agents or other solutions to molds.
• Inspect production equipment.
• Clean production equipment.
• Build production molds.

Knowledge, skills & abilities

O*NET importance rating, from 1 (not important) to 5 (extremely important).

Knowledge

Abilities

Essential skills

Transferable skills

Skills in demand

Skills employers ask for in job postings for this occupation (Lightcast), with whether each is a common or specialized skill.

• Chemistry Specialized Skill
• Visualization Specialized Skill
• Information Ordering Specialized Skill
• English Language Common Skill
• Speech Recognition Specialized Skill
• Reading Comprehension Common Skill
• Microsoft Word Common Skill
• Microsoft Excel Common Skill
• Inductive Reasoning Common Skill
• Finger Dexterity Common Skill
• Deductive Reasoning Common Skill
• Complex Problem Solving Common Skill
• Active Listening Common Skill
• Writing Common Skill
• Time Management Common Skill
• Instructing Specialized Skill
• Depth Perception Common Skill
• Critical Thinking Common Skill
• Active Learning Common Skill
• Mathematics Common Skill
• Social Perceptiveness Common Skill
• Learning Strategies Specialized Skill
• Negotiation Common Skill
• Systems Analysis Specialized Skill
• Equipment Selection Specialized Skill
• Physics Specialized Skill
• Equipment Maintenance Specialized Skill
• Psychology Specialized Skill
• Foreign Language Common Skill
• Telecommunications Specialized Skill
• Geography Specialized Skill
• Biology Specialized Skill
• Installation Specialized Skill

Tools & technology

Work context

How characteristic each condition is of the job, on O*NET's 1–5 context scale (higher = more present in day-to-day work). Each condition links to how it varies across all occupations.

How to get in

Job zone

Zone 2 — Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed

Education

Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.

Typical entry-level education

High school diploma or equivalent · BLS, the typical path — not a requirement

Related experience

Some occupations may need little or no previous experience; others require several months to a year of experience. For example, landscaping and groundskeeping workers might require very little training or previous experience, while agricultural equipment operators can benefit from on-the job training.

Preparation level

SVP (Below 6.0) — total schooling plus on-the-job experience.

Education of current workers

Share of people in this occupation at each level of education.

Interests & work styles

The interests and personal qualities O*NET associates with people who do this work.

Career interests (Holland / RIASEC)

Interest areas

Work styles

Wages & employment

U.S. · annual wages (BLS OEWS)

Industries that employ this occupation

Where these workers are employed, by number of jobs (national, BLS OEWS). Pay shown is the occupation's national median, not industry-specific.

Where this work is most concentrated

Industries where this occupation is far more common than in the economy as a whole. The location quotient is how many times more concentrated it is here (a value of 5 means five times its economy-wide share).

Related occupations

Part of the Advanced Manufacturing career cluster.

• Molders, Shapers, and Casters, Except Metal and Plastic · 51-9195.00 Compare →
• Foundry Mold and Coremakers · 51-4071.00 Compare →
• Insulation Workers, Floor, Ceiling, and Wall · 47-2131.00 Compare →
• Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters · 51-2041.00 Compare →
• Tire Builders · 51-9197.00 Compare →
• Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers · 51-2011.00 Compare →
• Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders · 51-9124.00 Compare →
• Furniture Finishers · 51-7021.00 Compare →
• Extruding and Forming Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Synthetic and Glass Fibers · 51-6091.00 Compare →
• Plating Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic · 51-4193.00 Compare →
• Adhesive Bonding Machine Operators and Tenders · 51-9191.00 Compare →
• Painting, Coating, and Decorating Workers · 51-9123.00 Compare →

Side-by-side comparisons place two occupations’ pay, preparation, skills, and AI exposure on the same page — same data, same scale, no forecast.

What you can do with this

Options the data surfaces for Fiberglass Laminators and Fabricators — not advice or a forecast. Each is a real cross-link you can follow into the evidence.

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.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai Microsoft Research
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-role-51-2051-00,
  title  = {Fiberglass Laminators and Fabricators},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/roles/role-51-2051-00}
}