Equipment Selection
Cross-functional skill · O*NET work requirement
Determining the kind of tools and equipment needed to do a job.
In the O*NET occupational database, Equipment Selection is a skill that work requires. O*NET rates how important it is (1–5) and what level of it a job needs (0–7) for every U.S. occupation. It is rated as important (3 or higher) in 42 of 894 occupations.
Breadth here means how widely O*NET rates this skill as important across occupations — not that it is rare, high-paying, or currently in employer demand.
Occupations that rely most on Equipment Selection
Ranked by O*NET importance to the occupation (1–5). Bars are sized against the 1–5 scale; the level column is what depth of the skill the job needs (0–7).
Showing the top 40 of 42 occupations where this is important.
How AI is used by roles that need Equipment Selection
This skill is not itself "being automated" — but we can look at the roles for which O*NET rates it important and ask how those people actually use AI. This rolls the Anthropic Economic Index per-role signal up across those roles (importance-weighted). 50.0% of the 42 roles where this is important carry observed AI-usage data (21 roles).
Across those roles, 29.6% of AI conversations are people working with AI and 41.3% hand a task to AI , with an average autonomy of 3.76 / 5.
| Collaboration pattern | Share | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| learning | 22.6% | you ask AI to explain or teach |
| directive | 22.1% | AI does it; you give the instruction |
| feedback loop | 19.2% | AI does it, then adjusts from your feedback |
| task iteration | 5.8% | you and AI go back and forth |
| validation | 1.2% | you do it; AI checks your work |
Roles behind this signal
The roles where this skill is most important and that also have the most AEI data. "Works with AI" is the role's share of conversations that augment rather than automate.
| Occupation | Importance | Works with AI | Autonomy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Computer, Automated Teller, and Office Machine Repairers | 3.3 | 33.4% | 4.0/5 |
| Robotics Engineers | 3.1 | 42.0% | 4.0/5 |
| Industrial Machinery Mechanics | 3.1 | 22.8% | 4.0/5 |
| Robotics Technicians | 3.1 | 42.3% | 3.0/5 |
| Electronic Home Entertainment Equipment Installers and Repairers | 3.0 | 33.9% | 3.5/5 |
| Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers | 3.1 | 23.4% | 4.0/5 |
| Electro-Mechanical Technicians | 3.1 | 25.7% | 4.0/5 |
| Electricians | 3.0 | 34.3% | 3.8/5 |
| Electric Motor, Power Tool, and Related Repairers | 3.8 | 32.2% | 4.0/5 |
| Electronic Equipment Installers and Repairers, Motor Vehicles | 3.0 | 21.9% | 4.0/5 |
| Maintenance and Repair Workers, General | 3.0 | 40.7% | 4.0/5 |
| Recreational Vehicle Service Technicians | 3.0 | — | 3.0/5 |
Source: Anthropic Economic Index (2026-01-15-v4-plus-2025-03-27-v2) over a sample of Claude.ai Free and Pro conversations — not all AI tools and not the whole workforce. Shares are of observed conversations, weighted by how important this skill is to each role; some conversations are left unclassified by Anthropic's taxonomy, so shares need not sum to 100.
Industries that concentrate this
Where Equipment Selection matters most across the economy. Employment reach is the share of an industry's workers in occupations that significantly rely on Equipment Selection (O*NET importance ≥ 3 of 5). Concentration compares that reach to the national average industry, so a value above 1× means the requirement is more pervasive here than across the economy as a whole.
Nationally, about 3.4% of workers are in occupations that significantly rely on Equipment Selection (measured across 67 industries).
Sectors with the most such workers
| Sector | Workers | Employment reach |
|---|---|---|
| Construction | 1,076,260 | 13.3% |
| Manufacturing | 718,180 | 5.6% |
| Retail Trade | 543,020 | 3.5% |
| Other Services (except Public Administration) | 496,700 | 11.2% |
| Real Estate and Rental and Leasing | 379,830 | 16.0% |
| Wholesale Trade | 334,920 | 5.5% |
| Transportation and Warehousing | 303,590 | 4.1% |
| Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services | 201,750 | 2.2% |
| Health Care and Social Assistance | 154,990 | 0.7% |
| Educational Services | 154,280 | 1.1% |
| Accommodation and Food Services | 135,170 | 0.9% |
| Information | 119,780 | 4.1% |
Industries where it is most concentrated
| Industry | Level | Concentration | Employment reach |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors | National industry | 15.5× | 52.7% |
| Farm and Garden Machinery and Equipment Merchant Wholesalers | National industry | 7.59× | 25.8% |
| Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors | National industry | 7.35× | 25.0% |
| Other Building Equipment Contractors | National industry | 5.47× | 18.6% |
| Real Estate and Rental and Leasing | Sector | 4.71× | 16.0% |
| Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction | Sector | 3.94× | 13.4% |
| Construction | Sector | 3.91× | 13.3% |
| Other Services (except Public Administration) | Sector | 3.29× | 11.2% |
| Fossil Fuel Electric Power Generation | National industry | 2.47× | 8.4% |
| Power and Communication Line and Related Structures Construction | National industry | 2.35× | 8.0% |
| Utilities | Sector | 2.03× | 6.9% |
| Manufacturing | Sector | 1.65× | 5.6% |
Reach is a measure of how widespread a requirement is across an industry's workforce, not how intensively any individual uses it. Sector worker counts come from BLS OEWS employment; the significance threshold and tool use come from O*NET. Industries shown by concentration are filtered to a real worker base so a tiny specialty cannot top the list on rounding.
Related skills, knowledge & abilities
Capabilities required by many of the same occupations — a measure of which skills, knowledge and abilities tend to travel together, not a judgment of similarity.
| Capability | Type | Shared occupations |
|---|---|---|
| Equipment Maintenance | Cross-functional skill | 39 |
| Repairing | Cross-functional skill | 36 |
| Troubleshooting | Cross-functional skill | 41 |
| Installation | Cross-functional skill | 13 |
| Hearing Sensitivity | Ability | 22 |
| Quality Control Analysis | Cross-functional skill | 40 |
| Extent Flexibility | Ability | 27 |
| Auditory Attention | Ability | 23 |
| Mechanical | Knowledge | 42 |
| Operation and Control | Cross-functional skill | 31 |
| Control Precision | Ability | 42 |
| Operations Monitoring | Cross-functional skill | 39 |
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
- Census NAICS 2022 U.S. Census Bureau
- Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.
Cite this page
Singulariki. "Equipment Selection." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; Census NAICS 2022; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27). Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/skills/equipment-selection
Singulariki. (2026). Equipment Selection. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/skills/equipment-selection
@misc{singulariki-equipment-selection,
title = {Equipment Selection},
author = {{Singulariki}},
year = {2026},
note = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; Census NAICS 2022; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27). Accessed June 7, 2026},
url = {https://singulariki.com/skills/equipment-selection}
} Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.