# Upholsterers

> Make, repair, or replace upholstery for household furniture or transportation vehicles.

- **SOC code:** 51-6093.00
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/roles/role-51-6093-00
- **Also known as:** Box Spring Upholsterer, Upholstered Goods Crafter, Upholsterer, Upholstery Cutter, Furniture Upholsterer, Inside Upholsterer, Sofa Back Upholsterer, Stapler
- **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):
- Fit, install, and secure material on frames, using hand tools, power tools, glue, cement, or staples.
- Measure and cut new covering materials, using patterns and measuring and cutting instruments, following sketches and design specifications.
- Build furniture up with loose fiber stuffing, cotton, felt, or foam padding to form smooth, rounded surfaces.
- Make, restore, or create custom upholstered furniture, using hand tools and knowledge of fabrics and upholstery methods.
- Read work orders, and apply knowledge and experience with materials to determine types and amounts of materials required to cover workpieces.
- Draw cutting lines on material following patterns, templates, sketches, or blueprints, using chalk, pencils, paint, or other methods.
- Stretch webbing and fabric, using webbing stretchers.
- Operate sewing machines or sew upholstery by hand to seam cushions and join various sections of covering material.
- Examine furniture frames, upholstery, springs, and webbing to locate defects.
- Adjust or replace webbing, padding, or springs, and secure them in place.
- Sew rips or tears in material, or create tufting, using needles and thread.
- Design upholstery cover patterns and cutting plans, based on sketches, customer descriptions, or blueprints.

## Skills, tools, capabilities

**Knowledge, skills & abilities** (O*NET, highest importance first):
- Arm-Hand Steadiness _(ability)_
- Manual Dexterity _(ability)_
- Finger Dexterity _(ability)_
- Near Vision _(ability)_
- Control Precision _(ability)_
- Multilimb Coordination _(ability)_
- Visual Color Discrimination _(ability)_
- Visualization _(ability)_
- Critical Thinking _(essential_skill)_
- Written Comprehension _(ability)_
- Problem Sensitivity _(ability)_
- Reading Comprehension _(essential_skill)_

**Skills in demand:**
- Finger Dexterity _(Common Skill)_
- Visualization _(Specialized Skill)_
- Critical Thinking _(Common Skill)_
- Reading Comprehension _(Common Skill)_
- Information Ordering _(Specialized Skill)_
- Time Management _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Word _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Windows _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft PowerPoint _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Excel _(Common Skill)_
- Depth Perception _(Common Skill)_
- Deductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_

**Tools & technology:**
- Autodesk AutoCAD _(hot technology)_
- Intuit QuickBooks _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Excel _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Office software _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft PowerPoint _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Windows _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Word _(hot technology)_
- LibreOffice Draw

## AI exposure & outlook

- **AI task-overlap index:** 17th percentile (Low) across all occupations — composite of current-era exposure studies (ai-exposure-index-v1).
- **Overall AI exposure (Felten et al.):** 8th percentile (Low) — source: felten_aioe.
- **LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou):** 30th percentile (Low) — source: eloundou_gamma.
- **AI assistant applicability (Microsoft):** 23rd percentile (Low) — source: microsoft_applicability.
- **Frey–Osborne (2013, historical computerization estimate):** 43rd percentile — kept separate from current-era studies.
- **Remote-capable (Dingel–Neiman):** no — task structure, not who actually works remote.
- **Projected employment (BLS 2024–34):** -1.8% growth (Declining); 2.2k annual openings; 22.7k → 22.3k jobs.
- **Pay & employment (BLS OEWS, May 2024):** median $46,190; 20,990 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-51-6093-00_