# Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders

> Set up, operate, or tend spraying or rolling machines to coat or paint any of a wide variety of products, including glassware, cloth, ceramics, metal, plastic, paper, or wood, with lacquer, silver, copper, rubber, varnish, glaze, enamel, oil, or rust-proofing materials. Includes painters of transportation vehicles such as painters in auto body repair facilities.

- **SOC code:** 51-9124.00
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/roles/role-51-9124-00
- **Also known as:** Automotive Painter (Auto Painter), Coater Operator, Paint Technician (Paint Tech), Painter, Automotive Refinish Technician (Auto Refinish Tech), Hand Sprayer, Industrial Painter, Powder Coater
- **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):
- Dispose of hazardous waste in an appropriate manner.
- Hold or position spray guns to direct spray onto articles.
- Spray prepared surfaces with specified amounts of primers and decorative or finish coatings.
- Monitor painting operations to identify flaws, such as blisters or streaks, and correct their causes.
- Fill hoppers, reservoirs, troughs, or pans with material used to coat, paint, or spray, using conveyors or pails.
- Disassemble, clean, and reassemble sprayers or power equipment, using solvents, wire brushes, and cloths.
- Thread or feed items or products through or around machine rollers and dryers.
- Clean equipment and work areas.
- Weigh or measure chemicals, coatings, or paints before adding them to machines.
- Start and stop operation of machines, using levers or buttons.
- Apply rust-resistant undercoats and caulk and seal seams.
- Operate auxiliary machines or equipment used in coating or painting processes.

## Skills, tools, capabilities

**Knowledge, skills & abilities** (O*NET, highest importance first):
- Near Vision _(ability)_
- Arm-Hand Steadiness _(ability)_
- Control Precision _(ability)_
- Visual Color Discrimination _(ability)_
- Operations Monitoring _(transferable_skill)_
- Manual Dexterity _(ability)_
- Finger Dexterity _(ability)_
- Far Vision _(ability)_
- Monitoring _(essential_skill)_
- Operation and Control _(transferable_skill)_
- Quality Control Analysis _(transferable_skill)_
- Flexibility of Closure _(ability)_

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

**Tools & technology:**
- Microsoft Excel _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Office software _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Outlook _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Word _(hot technology)_
- Inventory control software
- Inventory management systems
- Maintenance management software
- Materials requirement planning MRP software
- Robotic painting software
- Scheduling software
- Time recording software

## AI exposure & outlook

- **AI task-overlap index:** 6th percentile (Low) across all occupations — composite of current-era exposure studies (ai-exposure-index-v1).
- **LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou):** 9th percentile (Low) — source: eloundou_gamma.
- **AI assistant applicability (Microsoft):** 11th percentile (Low) — source: microsoft_applicability.
- **Projected employment (BLS 2024–34):** 0.7% growth (About average); 15.8k annual openings; 165.5k → 166.7k jobs.
- **Pay & employment (BLS OEWS, May 2024):** median $47,590; 159,500 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-51-9124-00_