# Furniture Finishers

> Shape, finish, and refinish damaged, worn, or used furniture or new high-grade furniture to specified color or finish.

- **SOC code:** 51-7021.00
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/roles/role-51-7021-00
- **Also known as:** Finisher, Furniture Finisher, Lacquer Sprayer, Sprayer, Finish Repair Worker, Hand Sander, Sander, Sealer Sander
- **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):
- Confer with customers to determine furniture colors or finishes.
- Brush, spray, or hand-rub finishing ingredients, such as paint, oil, stain, or wax, onto and into wood grain and apply lacquer or other sealers.
- Fill and smooth cracks or depressions, remove marks and imperfections, and repair broken parts, using plastic or wood putty, glue, nails, or screws.
- Smooth, shape, and touch up surfaces to prepare them for finishing, using sandpaper, pumice stones, steel wool, chisels, sanders, or grinders.
- Remove accessories prior to finishing, and mask areas that should not be exposed to finishing processes or substances.
- Remove old finishes and damaged or deteriorated parts, using hand tools, stripping tools, sandpaper, steel wool, abrasives, solvents, or dip baths.
- Recommend woods, colors, finishes, and furniture styles, using knowledge of wood products, fashions, and styles.
- Treat warped or stained surfaces to restore original contours and colors.
- Select appropriate finishing ingredients such as paint, stain, lacquer, shellac, or varnish, depending on factors such as wood hardness and surface type.
- Mix finish ingredients to obtain desired colors or shades.
- Wash surfaces to prepare them for finish application.
- Remove excess solvent, using cloths soaked in paint thinner.

## Skills, tools, capabilities

**Knowledge, skills & abilities** (O*NET, highest importance first):
- Near Vision _(ability)_
- Visual Color Discrimination _(ability)_
- Arm-Hand Steadiness _(ability)_
- Manual Dexterity _(ability)_
- Control Precision _(ability)_
- Visualization _(ability)_
- Production and Processing _(knowledge)_
- Selective Attention _(ability)_
- Static Strength _(ability)_
- Trunk Strength _(ability)_
- Active Listening _(essential_skill)_
- Critical Thinking _(essential_skill)_

**Skills in demand:**
- Visualization _(Specialized Skill)_
- Inductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_
- Finger Dexterity _(Common Skill)_
- Critical Thinking _(Common Skill)_
- Active Listening _(Common Skill)_
- Time Management _(Common Skill)_
- Speech Recognition _(Specialized Skill)_
- Information Ordering _(Specialized Skill)_
- Deductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_
- Complex Problem Solving _(Common Skill)_
- English Language _(Common Skill)_
- Social Perceptiveness _(Common Skill)_

**Tools & technology:**
- Intuit QuickBooks _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Office software _(hot technology)_
- DuPont ColorNet
- DuPont Spies Hecker Wizard
- Web browser software

## AI exposure & outlook

- **AI task-overlap index:** 10th 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):** 8th percentile (Low) — source: eloundou_gamma.
- **AI assistant applicability (Microsoft):** 22nd percentile (Low) — source: microsoft_applicability.
- **Frey–Osborne (2013, historical computerization estimate):** 74th percentile — kept separate from current-era studies.
- **Remote-capable (Dingel–Neiman):** no — task structure, not who actually works remote.
- **Projected employment (BLS 2024–34):** -3.3% growth (Declining); 2k annual openings; 20.5k → 19.8k jobs.
- **Pay & employment (BLS OEWS, May 2024):** median $42,530; 14,230 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-51-7021-00_