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Troubleshooting

Cross-functional skill · O*NET work requirement

Determining causes of operating errors and deciding what to do about it.

In the O*NET occupational database, Troubleshooting 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 138 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 Troubleshooting

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
Aircraft Mechanics and Service Technicians 4.5 4.4
Mobile Heavy Equipment Mechanics, Except Engines 4.1 4.0
Signal and Track Switch Repairers 4.1 4.0
Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists 4.0 3.8
Electricians 4.0 4.0
Elevator and Escalator Installers and Repairers 4.0 4.0
Farm Equipment Mechanics and Service Technicians 4.0 3.9
Industrial Machinery Mechanics 4.0 4.0
Rail Car Repairers 4.0 3.8
Robotics Technicians 4.0 4.0
Wind Turbine Service Technicians 4.0 4.0
Avionics Technicians 3.9 4.0
Camera and Photographic Equipment Repairers 3.9 3.6
Electric Motor, Power Tool, and Related Repairers 3.9 3.9
Electro-Mechanical and Mechatronics Technologists and Technicians 3.9 4.0
Medical Equipment Repairers 3.9 4.0
Motorcycle Mechanics 3.9 3.9
Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers 3.9 3.8
Electrical and Electronics Repairers, Commercial and Industrial Equipment 3.8 3.9
Maintenance Workers, Machinery 3.8 3.4
Maintenance and Repair Workers, General 3.8 3.8
Millwrights 3.8 3.6
Motorboat Mechanics and Service Technicians 3.8 3.8
Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners 3.8 3.3
Network and Computer Systems Administrators 3.8 4.0
Outdoor Power Equipment and Other Small Engine Mechanics 3.8 3.6
Ship Engineers 3.8 3.9
Audiovisual Equipment Installers and Repairers 3.6 3.5
Automotive Service Technicians and Mechanics 3.6 3.8
Bicycle Repairers 3.6 3.0
Electronic Equipment Installers and Repairers, Motor Vehicles 3.6 3.6
Geothermal Technicians 3.6 3.8
Home Appliance Repairers 3.6 3.6
Medical Appliance Technicians 3.6 3.1
Recreational Vehicle Service Technicians 3.6 3.9
Robotics Engineers 3.6 3.9
Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technologists and Technicians 3.5 3.5
Electrical and Electronics Repairers, Powerhouse, Substation, and Relay 3.5 4.0
Heating, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Mechanics and Installers 3.5 3.5
Manufacturing Engineers 3.5 3.6

Showing the top 40 of 138 occupations where this is important.

How AI is used by roles that need Troubleshooting

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). 35.5% of the 138 roles where this is important carry observed AI-usage data (49 roles).

Across those roles, 27.4% of AI conversations are people working with AI and 37.9% hand a task to AI , with an average autonomy of 3.64 / 5.

Collaboration pattern Share What it means
directive 26.7% AI does it; you give the instruction
learning 16.6% you ask AI to explain or teach
feedback loop 11.2% AI does it, then adjusts from your feedback
task iteration 9.8% you and AI go back and forth
validation 1.0% 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 3.4 33.4% 4.0/5
Robotics Engineers 3.6 42.0% 4.0/5
Industrial Machinery Mechanics 4.0 22.8% 4.0/5
Electronics Engineers, Except Computer 3.0 45.3% 4.0/5
Textile Cutting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders 3.0 27.2% 4.0/5
Robotics Technicians 4.0 42.3% 3.0/5
Electronic Home Entertainment Equipment Installers and Repairers 3.6 33.9% 3.5/5
Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers 3.9 23.4% 4.0/5
Solar Photovoltaic Installers 3.0 47.2% 4.0/5
Nuclear Engineers 3.1 40.4% 4.0/5
Electro-Mechanical Technicians 3.9 25.7% 4.0/5
Electricians 4.0 34.3% 3.8/5

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 Troubleshooting matters most across the economy. Employment reach is the share of an industry's workers in occupations that significantly rely on Troubleshooting (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 9.5% of workers are in occupations that significantly rely on Troubleshooting (measured across 67 industries).

Sectors with the most such workers

Sector Workers Employment reach
Manufacturing 2,766,850 21.7%
Construction 2,284,770 28.1%
Transportation and Warehousing 2,168,660 29.3%
Wholesale Trade 957,320 15.9%
Retail Trade 816,660 5.2%
Other Services (except Public Administration) 736,730 16.6%
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 736,430 8.2%
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services 551,680 5.1%
Real Estate and Rental and Leasing 496,230 21.0%
Information 344,510 11.8%
Educational Services 341,110 2.5%
Health Care and Social Assistance 324,470 1.4%

Industries where it is most concentrated

Industry Level Concentration Employment reach
Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors National industry 6.85× 65.1%
Wind Electric Power Generation National industry 6.28× 59.7%
Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors National industry 5.98× 56.8%
Fossil Fuel Electric Power Generation National industry 5.56× 52.8%
Power and Communication Line and Related Structures Construction National industry 5.12× 48.6%
Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction Sector 4.93× 46.8%
Machine Shops National industry 4.93× 46.8%
Nuclear Electric Power Generation National industry 4.8× 45.6%
Utilities Sector 4.68× 44.5%
Farm and Garden Machinery and Equipment Merchant Wholesalers National industry 3.49× 33.2%
Other Building Equipment Contractors National industry 3.29× 31.3%
Transportation and Warehousing Sector 3.08× 29.3%

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 91
Repairing Cross-functional skill 86
Quality Control Analysis Cross-functional skill 119
Operations Monitoring Cross-functional skill 134
Operation and Control Cross-functional skill 105
Mechanical Knowledge 124
Control Precision Ability 124
Reaction Time Ability 70
Multilimb Coordination Ability 96
Manual Dexterity Ability 123
Finger Dexterity Ability 120
Auditory Attention Ability 63

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. "Troubleshooting." 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/troubleshooting

APA

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

BibTeX
@misc{singulariki-troubleshooting,
  title  = {Troubleshooting},
  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/troubleshooting}
}

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