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Operating system software

Technology category · O*NET

Operating system software is a technology category in the O*NET database. Across U.S. occupations, 342 report using software or tools in this category. The named products below are the specific examples O*NET records for those jobs. The occupations that use it sit, on average, at the 63rd percentile of AI task-exposure ( moderate) — how much that work overlaps with what AI can do, not a sign the tool is being replaced. See where every tool category sits.

A Hot tag marks technologies O*NET sees frequently in employer job postings; In demand marks tools an occupation specifically requires.

Example software & tools

Ranked by how many occupations list each product. Each number is an occupation count — a job is counted once per product — so the product rows overlap and do not sum to the category total.

Software / tool Occupations Tags
Microsoft Windows 241 Hot In demand
Linux 122 Hot In demand
UNIX 89 Hot In demand
Apple macOS 57 Hot In demand
Shell script 43 Hot In demand
Bash 35 Hot In demand
Oracle Solaris 28
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 26 Hot In demand
UNIX Shell 25 Hot
Microsoft Windows Server 24 Hot In demand
Hewlett Packard HP-UX 23
Job control language JCL 23
Ubuntu 22
KornShell 21
Apple iOS 17 Hot In demand
Cisco IOS 16
Google Android 12 Hot In demand
Magellan Firmware 12 In demand
Handheld computer device software 11
Real time operating system RTOS software 7
IBM AIX 6
Hewlett-Packard HP OpenVMS 4
Microsoft Windows XP 4
DOS shell script 2
Disk operating system DOS 2
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2
Microsoft Windows Mobile 2
Microsoft Windows Vista Business 2
Operating system shells 2
QNX 2
Win CE 2
Wind River Systems VxWorks 2
Wind River VxWorks 2
Windows Embedded Compact 2
Apple AppleScript 1
BlackBerry Enterprise Server 1
Bourne Shell 1
C shell 1
Computer operating systems 1
Cygwin 1

Showing the top 40 of 53 products in this category.

Occupations that use Operating system software

Showing 40 of 342 occupations.

Exposure quadrant: AI task-overlap percentile vs Median pay AI task-overlap (horizontal) versus median pay (vertical), each as a percentile across all scored occupations, for 37 occupations in occupations that use Operating system software. Overlap measures shared tasks with AI, not automation. Lower overlap · higher pay Higher overlap · higher pay Higher overlap · lower pay Lower overlap · lower pay Automotive Glass Installers and Repairers Automotive and Watercraft Service Attendants Acupuncturists Automotive Body and Related Repairers Animal Trainers Aircraft Service Attendants Administrative Services Managers Avionics Technicians Animal Control Workers Amusement and Recreation Attendants Audio and Video Technicians Biofuels/Biodiesel Technology and Product Development Managers Anthropologists and Archeologists Administrative Law Judges, Adjudicators, and Hearing Officers Biochemists and Biophysicists Billing and Posting Clerks Advertising and Promotions Managers Agents and Business Managers of Artists, Performers, and Athletes Bioinformatics Technicians AI task-overlap percentile → ↑ Median pay
Occupations that use Operating system software, by AI task-overlap and median pay

How AI is used by roles that use Operating system software

A software category is not itself "being automated" — but we can look at the roles that report using Operating system software and ask how those people actually use AI. This rolls the Anthropic Economic Index per-role signal up across those roles, weighted by how much observed AI activity each one has. 55.6% of the 342 roles that use this category carry observed AI-usage data (190 roles).

Across those roles, 54.8% of AI conversations are people working with AI and 38.1% hand a task to AI , with an average autonomy of 3.68 / 5.

Collaboration pattern Share What it means
directive 33.0% AI does it; you give the instruction
task iteration 32.9% you and AI go back and forth
learning 16.7% you ask AI to explain or teach
validation 5.2% you do it; AI checks your work
feedback loop 5.0% AI does it, then adjusts from your feedback

Roles behind this signal

The roles using this category that have the most AEI data. "Works with AI" is the role's share of conversations that augment rather than automate.

Occupation Works with AI Autonomy
Biological Science Teachers, Postsecondary 63.2% 4.0/5
Editors 68.2% 4.0/5
Office Clerks, General 36.5% 3.0/5
Communications Teachers, Postsecondary 65.7% 3.0/5
Area, Ethnic, and Cultural Studies Teachers, Postsecondary 62.5% 3.5/5
Actors 43.3% 4.0/5
Physics Teachers, Postsecondary 65.9% 4.0/5
Art, Drama, and Music Teachers, Postsecondary 66.1% 4.0/5
Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive 36.3% 3.0/5
Computer Science Teachers, Postsecondary 68.5% 4.0/5
Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education 62.8% 4.0/5
Cashiers 42.8% 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. Roles list software categories in O*NET; this does not mean AI is used inside Operating system software, only that people in those roles use AI. Some conversations are left unclassified, so shares need not sum to 100.

Industries that concentrate this

Where Operating system software matters most across the economy. Employment reach is the share of an industry's workers in occupations that significantly use Operating system software (O*NET importance ≥ 3 of 5, or report using the tool category). 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 57.8% of workers are in occupations that significantly use Operating system software (measured across 67 industries).

Sectors with the most such workers

Sector Workers Employment reach
Retail Trade 12,684,580 81.3%
Health Care and Social Assistance 9,877,600 42.8%
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services 8,035,490 74.6%
Accommodation and Food Services 6,302,340 44.3%
Construction 5,919,680 72.9%
Transportation and Warehousing 5,521,610 74.7%
Manufacturing 5,418,590 42.5%
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 4,936,500 54.7%
Finance and Insurance 4,834,740 77.6%
Wholesale Trade 4,434,500 73.5%
Educational Services 3,945,660 28.9%
Other Services (except Public Administration) 2,595,950 58.6%

Industries where it is most concentrated

Industry Level Concentration Employment reach
Painting and Wall Covering Contractors National industry 1.61× 93.2%
Roofing Contractors National industry 1.57× 90.9%
Insurance Agencies and Brokerages National industry 1.56× 90.2%
Sporting Goods Retailers National industry 1.5× 86.5%
Information Sector 1.49× 86.1%
Drywall and Insulation Contractors National industry 1.49× 86.0%
Electrical Contractors and Other Wiring Installation Contractors National industry 1.48× 85.4%
Direct Health and Medical Insurance Carriers National industry 1.47× 84.8%
Engineering Services National industry 1.43× 82.7%
Landscaping Services National industry 1.43× 82.4%
Retail Trade Sector 1.41× 81.3%
Management of Companies and Enterprises Sector 1.36× 78.6%

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.

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 3, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Operating system software." 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); “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/tools/operating-system-software

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Operating system software. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/tools/operating-system-software

BibTeX
@misc{singulariki-operating-system-software,
  title  = {Operating system software},
  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); “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tools/operating-system-software}
}

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