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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).

Occupation Importance Score Level
Electric Motor, Power Tool, and Related Repairers 3.8 3.0
Signal and Track Switch Repairers 3.6 2.8
Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians 3.4 3.0
Bicycle Repairers 3.4 2.6
Elevator and Escalator Installers and Repairers 3.4 3.3
Mobile Heavy Equipment Mechanics, Except Engines 3.4 3.3
Computer, Automated Teller, and Office Machine Repairers 3.3 3.0
Farm Equipment Mechanics and Service Technicians 3.3 3.0
Outdoor Power Equipment and Other Small Engine Mechanics 3.3 2.8
Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists 3.1 3.0
Electrical and Electronics Repairers, Commercial and Industrial Equipment 3.1 3.3
Electro-Mechanical and Mechatronics Technologists and Technicians 3.1 3.1
Helpers--Extraction Workers 3.1 2.8
Industrial Machinery Mechanics 3.1 3.1
Motorboat Mechanics and Service Technicians 3.1 2.6
Robotics Engineers 3.1 4.1
Robotics Technicians 3.1 3.3
Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers 3.1 3.1
Tool and Die Makers 3.1 3.0
Audiovisual Equipment Installers and Repairers 3.0 2.9
Automotive Glass Installers and Repairers 3.0 2.4
Automotive Service Technicians and Mechanics 3.0 2.8
Avionics Technicians 3.0 3.0
Boilermakers 3.0 3.0
Cabinetmakers and Bench Carpenters 3.0 2.9
Camera and Photographic Equipment Repairers 3.0 3.1
Commercial Divers 3.0 2.9
Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas 3.0 2.5
Electricians 3.0 2.9
Electronic Equipment Installers and Repairers, Motor Vehicles 3.0 2.8
Excavating and Loading Machine and Dragline Operators, Surface Mining 3.0 2.9
Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers 3.0 3.3
Home Appliance Repairers 3.0 2.9
Maintenance and Repair Workers, General 3.0 3.0
Medical Equipment Repairers 3.0 3.0
Model Makers, Metal and Plastic 3.0 3.0
Motorcycle Mechanics 3.0 2.3
Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners 3.0 2.9
Recreational Vehicle Service Technicians 3.0 2.9
Ship Engineers 3.0 3.0

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.

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.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

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

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Equipment Selection. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/skills/equipment-selection

BibTeX
@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.