# Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers

> Use hand-welding, flame-cutting, hand-soldering, or brazing equipment to weld or join metal components or to fill holes, indentations, or seams of fabricated metal products.

- **SOC code:** 51-4121.00
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/roles/role-51-4121-00
- **Also known as:** Brazer, Solderer, Welder, Wirer, Assembly Line Brazer, Fabrication Welder, MIG Welder (Metal Inert Gas Welder), Maintenance Welder
- **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):
- Operate safety equipment and use safe work habits.
- Examine workpieces for defects and measure workpieces with straightedges or templates to ensure conformance with specifications.
- Weld components in flat, vertical, or overhead positions.
- Check grooves, angles, or gap allowances, using micrometers, calipers, and precision measuring instruments.
- Detect faulty operation of equipment or defective materials and notify supervisors.
- Recognize, set up, and operate hand and power tools common to the welding trade, such as shielded metal arc and gas metal arc welding equipment.
- Select and install torches, torch tips, filler rods, and flux, according to welding chart specifications or types and thicknesses of metals.
- Mark or tag material with proper job number, piece marks, and other identifying marks as required.
- Determine required equipment and welding methods, applying knowledge of metallurgy, geometry, and welding techniques.
- Prepare all material surfaces to be welded, ensuring that there is no loose or thick scale, slag, rust, moisture, grease, or other foreign matter.
- Align and clamp workpieces together, using rules, squares, or hand tools, or position items in fixtures, jigs, or vises.
- Melt and apply solder to fill holes, indentations, or seams of fabricated metal products, using soldering equipment.

## Skills, tools, capabilities

**Knowledge, skills & abilities** (O*NET, highest importance first):
- Arm-Hand Steadiness _(ability)_
- Production and Processing _(knowledge)_
- Near Vision _(ability)_
- Problem Sensitivity _(ability)_
- Finger Dexterity _(ability)_
- Quality Control Analysis _(transferable_skill)_
- Manual Dexterity _(ability)_
- Control Precision _(ability)_
- Mechanical _(knowledge)_
- Monitoring _(essential_skill)_
- Oral Comprehension _(ability)_
- Deductive Reasoning _(ability)_

**Skills in demand:**
- Finger Dexterity _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Windows _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Outlook _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Excel _(Common Skill)_
- Deductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_
- Mathematics _(Common Skill)_
- Visualization _(Specialized Skill)_
- Information Ordering _(Specialized Skill)_
- Inductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_
- Critical Thinking _(Common Skill)_
- English Language _(Common Skill)_
- Time Management _(Common Skill)_

**Tools & technology:**
- Microsoft Excel _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Office software _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Outlook _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Windows _(hot technology)_
- Oracle Database _(hot technology)_
- EZ Pipe
- Fred's Tip Cartridge Picker
- IBM Notes
- OmniFleet Equipment Maintenance Management
- Recordkeeping software
- Scientific Software Group Filter Drain FD
- Value Analysis

## AI exposure & outlook

- **AI task-overlap index:** 12th percentile (Low) across all occupations — composite of current-era exposure studies (ai-exposure-index-v1).
- **Overall AI exposure (Felten et al.):** 11th percentile (Low) — source: felten_aioe.
- **LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou):** 14th percentile (Low) — source: eloundou_gamma.
- **AI assistant applicability (Microsoft):** 20th percentile (Low) — source: microsoft_applicability.
- **Frey–Osborne (2013, historical computerization estimate):** 86th percentile — kept separate from current-era studies.
- **Remote-capable (Dingel–Neiman):** no — task structure, not who actually works remote.
- **Projected employment (BLS 2024–34):** 2.2% growth (About average); 45.6k annual openings; 457.3k → 467.2k jobs.
- **Pay & employment (BLS OEWS, May 2024):** median $51,000; 424,040 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
- **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-51-4121-00_