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Judgment and Decision Making

Cross-functional skill · O*NET work requirement

Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.

In the O*NET occupational database, Judgment and Decision Making 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 682 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 Judgment and Decision Making

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
Chief Executives 4.8 5.4
Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary 4.6 4.8
Actuaries 4.3 4.6
Epidemiologists 4.3 4.4
Judges, Magistrate Judges, and Magistrates 4.3 4.8
Neuropsychologists 4.3 4.4
Pediatricians, General 4.3 4.4
Preventive Medicine Physicians 4.3 5.0
Urologists 4.3 4.3
Administrative Law Judges, Adjudicators, and Hearing Officers 4.1 4.9
Air Traffic Controllers 4.1 4.1
Allergists and Immunologists 4.1 4.5
Anesthesiologists 4.1 4.3
Business Continuity Planners 4.1 4.3
Clinical Neuropsychologists 4.1 4.3
Construction Managers 4.1 4.4
Dentists, General 4.1 4.1
Emergency Medicine Physicians 4.1 4.5
Hospitalists 4.1 4.4
Industrial-Organizational Psychologists 4.1 4.0
Lawyers 4.1 4.4
Media Programming Directors 4.1 4.1
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons 4.1 4.1
Psychiatrists 4.1 4.3
Radiologists 4.1 4.3
Security Managers 4.1 3.8
Sports Medicine Physicians 4.1 4.4
Treasurers and Controllers 4.1 4.6
Urban and Regional Planners 4.1 4.3
Acute Care Nurses 4.0 3.9
Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses 4.0 4.0
Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers 4.0 4.3
Animal Scientists 4.0 4.5
Biochemists and Biophysicists 4.0 4.3
Biostatisticians 4.0 4.4
Brownfield Redevelopment Specialists and Site Managers 4.0 4.0
Child, Family, and School Social Workers 4.0 4.0
Clinical Nurse Specialists 4.0 4.3
Coaches and Scouts 4.0 4.1
Computer and Information Research Scientists 4.0 4.6

Showing the top 40 of 682 occupations where this is important.

How AI is used by roles that need Judgment and Decision Making

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). 61.4% of the 682 roles where this is important carry observed AI-usage data (419 roles).

Across those roles, 48.5% of AI conversations are people working with AI and 31.0% hand a task to AI , with an average autonomy of 3.62 / 5.

Collaboration pattern Share What it means
directive 28.8% AI does it; you give the instruction
task iteration 24.6% you and AI go back and forth
learning 20.8% you ask AI to explain or teach
validation 3.0% you do it; AI checks your work
feedback loop 2.2% 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 3.4 63.2% 4.0/5
Biological Science Teachers, Postsecondary 3.8 63.2% 4.0/5
Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary 3.5 65.2% 3.0/5
Editors 3.1 68.2% 4.0/5
Poets, Lyricists and Creative Writers 3.3 46.2% 4.0/5
Educational, Guidance, School, and Vocational Counselors 3.6 70.6% 4.0/5
Recreation and Fitness Studies Teachers, Postsecondary 3.8 66.2% 3.3/5
Social Work Teachers, Postsecondary 3.6 67.2% 3.5/5
Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary 3.9 66.2% 3.5/5
Instructional Coordinators 3.8 53.1% 4.0/5
Technical Writers 3.1 54.2% 4.0/5
Philosophy and Religion Teachers, Postsecondary 3.4 66.8% 3.3/5

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 Judgment and Decision Making matters most across the economy. Employment reach is the share of an industry's workers in occupations that significantly rely on Judgment and Decision Making (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 50.7% of workers are in occupations that significantly rely on Judgment and Decision Making (measured across 67 industries).

Sectors with the most such workers

Sector Workers Employment reach
Health Care and Social Assistance 12,646,570 54.7%
Educational Services 9,630,970 70.6%
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services 8,495,140 78.9%
Manufacturing 6,291,480 49.3%
Construction 4,706,770 58.0%
Finance and Insurance 4,699,880 75.5%
Retail Trade 4,225,380 27.1%
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 3,804,640 42.1%
Wholesale Trade 3,288,920 54.5%
Accommodation and Food Services 2,650,760 18.6%
Other Services (except Public Administration) 2,564,970 57.9%
Information 2,211,000 76.0%

Industries where it is most concentrated

Industry Level Concentration Employment reach
Nuclear Electric Power Generation National industry 1.83× 93.0%
Wind Electric Power Generation National industry 1.83× 92.7%
Television Broadcasting Stations National industry 1.79× 90.6%
Radio Broadcasting Stations National industry 1.76× 89.0%
Hydroelectric Power Generation National industry 1.76× 89.0%
Labor Unions and Similar Labor Organizations National industry 1.7× 86.2%
Fossil Fuel Electric Power Generation National industry 1.7× 86.3%
Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors National industry 1.69× 85.6%
Engineering Services National industry 1.67× 84.7%
Testing Laboratories and Services National industry 1.61× 81.7%
Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities National industry 1.59× 80.7%
Utilities Sector 1.58× 80.2%

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
Complex Problem Solving Cross-functional skill 611
Inductive Reasoning Ability 655
Critical Thinking Basic skill 676
Deductive Reasoning Ability 671
Written Comprehension Ability 644
Reading Comprehension Basic skill 634
Active Learning Basic skill 567
Speaking Basic skill 662
Category Flexibility Ability 618
Information Ordering Ability 673
Monitoring Basic skill 644
Speech Clarity Ability 650

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. "Judgment and Decision Making." 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/judgment-and-decision-making

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Judgment and Decision Making. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/skills/judgment-and-decision-making

BibTeX
@misc{singulariki-judgment-and-decision-making,
  title  = {Judgment and Decision Making},
  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/judgment-and-decision-making}
}

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