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Instructing

Cross-functional skill · O*NET work requirement

Teaching others how to do something.

In the O*NET occupational database, Instructing 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 397 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 Instructing

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
Coaches and Scouts 4.8 4.8
Social Work Teachers, Postsecondary 4.8 4.9
English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary 4.6 4.4
Anthropology and Archeology Teachers, Postsecondary 4.5 4.8
Career/Technical Education Teachers, Secondary School 4.5 4.3
Agricultural Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary 4.4 4.8
Art, Drama, and Music Teachers, Postsecondary 4.4 4.8
Training and Development Specialists 4.4 4.1
Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English as a Second Language Instructors 4.3 4.0
Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education 4.3 4.0
Forestry and Conservation Science Teachers, Postsecondary 4.3 4.9
Library Science Teachers, Postsecondary 4.3 4.1
Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education 4.3 4.0
Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary 4.3 5.0
Physics Teachers, Postsecondary 4.3 4.4
Special Education Teachers, Elementary School 4.3 3.6
Adapted Physical Education Specialists 4.1 3.6
Architecture Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 4.9
Area, Ethnic, and Cultural Studies Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 3.9
Biological Science Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 4.4
Business Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 4.6
Communications Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 4.6
Computer Science Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 4.8
Education Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 4.3
Engineering Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 4.6
Geography Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 4.8
Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 4.4
Instructional Coordinators 4.1 4.3
Kindergarten Teachers, Except Special Education 4.1 3.3
Law Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 4.4
Philosophy and Religion Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 4.4
Psychology Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 4.3
Recreation and Fitness Studies Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 4.3
Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education 4.1 4.0
Special Education Teachers, Secondary School 4.1 4.0
Tutors 4.1 3.9
Atmospheric, Earth, Marine, and Space Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary 4.0 4.3
Career/Technical Education Teachers, Middle School 4.0 4.0
Career/Technical Education Teachers, Postsecondary 4.0 4.0
Choreographers 4.0 4.0

Showing the top 40 of 397 occupations where this is important.

How AI is used by roles that need Instructing

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). 66.8% of the 397 roles where this is important carry observed AI-usage data (265 roles).

Across those roles, 52.6% of AI conversations are people working with AI and 30.1% hand a task to AI , with an average autonomy of 3.70 / 5.

Collaboration pattern Share What it means
directive 28.1% AI does it; you give the instruction
task iteration 26.7% you and AI go back and forth
learning 21.9% you ask AI to explain or teach
validation 4.1% you do it; AI checks your work
feedback loop 1.9% AI does it, then adjusts from your feedback

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
English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary 4.6 63.2% 4.0/5
Biological Science Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 63.2% 4.0/5
Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary 4.0 65.2% 3.0/5
Social Work Teachers, Postsecondary 4.8 67.2% 3.5/5
Recreation and Fitness Studies Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 66.2% 3.3/5
Philosophy and Religion Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 66.8% 3.3/5
Educational, Guidance, School, and Vocational Counselors 3.6 70.6% 4.0/5
Education Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 65.3% 3.5/5
Editors 3.0 68.2% 4.0/5
Instructional Coordinators 4.1 53.1% 4.0/5
Geography Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 65.7% 3.3/5
Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary 4.1 66.2% 3.5/5

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 Instructing matters most across the economy. Employment reach is the share of an industry's workers in occupations that significantly rely on Instructing (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 30.0% of workers are in occupations that significantly rely on Instructing (measured across 67 industries).

Sectors with the most such workers

Sector Workers Employment reach
Health Care and Social Assistance 11,046,720 47.8%
Educational Services 8,594,320 63.0%
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services 4,275,120 39.7%
Accommodation and Food Services 2,505,630 17.6%
Retail Trade 2,249,250 14.4%
Manufacturing 2,235,540 17.5%
Construction 2,168,030 26.7%
Finance and Insurance 1,758,540 28.2%
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 1,735,410 19.2%
Management of Companies and Enterprises 1,138,260 40.5%
Wholesale Trade 1,117,880 18.5%
Other Services (except Public Administration) 1,106,370 25.0%

Industries where it is most concentrated

Industry Level Concentration Employment reach
Offices of Physical, Occupational and Speech Therapists, and Audiologists National industry 2.6× 78.0%
Wind Electric Power Generation National industry 2.44× 73.1%
Labor Unions and Similar Labor Organizations National industry 2.19× 65.7%
Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors National industry 2.18× 65.5%
Educational Services Sector 2.1× 63.0%
Nuclear Electric Power Generation National industry 2.04× 61.2%
Fitness and Recreational Sports Centers National industry 1.79× 53.7%
Offices of Mental Health Practitioners (except Physicians) National industry 1.72× 51.7%
Engineering Services National industry 1.71× 51.2%
Health Care and Social Assistance Sector 1.59× 47.8%
Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities National industry 1.55× 46.4%
Outpatient Mental Health and Substance Abuse Centers National industry 1.42× 42.7%

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
Learning Strategies Basic skill 325
Active Learning Basic skill 388
Fluency of Ideas Ability 338
Writing Basic skill 380
Originality Ability 302
Written Expression Ability 391
Social Perceptiveness Cross-functional skill 368
Systems Analysis Cross-functional skill 286
Complex Problem Solving Cross-functional skill 386
Systems Evaluation Cross-functional skill 263
Coordination Cross-functional skill 383
Education and Training Knowledge 297

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. "Instructing." 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/instructing

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Instructing. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/skills/instructing

BibTeX
@misc{singulariki-instructing,
  title  = {Instructing},
  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/instructing}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.