Spend Time Using Your Hands to Handle, Control, or Feel Objects, Tools, or Controls
Work context · O*NET
Spend Time Using Your Hands to Handle, Control, or Feel Objects, Tools, or Controls is a work-context dimension in the O*NET database — one of the standardized conditions O*NET uses to describe the environment a job is done in , grouped under Physical Work Conditions. O*NET defines it by asking workers: "How much does this job require using your hands to handle, control, or feel objects, tools or controls?." It is rated for 894 occupations, which average 3.31 out of 5 (high relative to other context dimensions).
How it's measured
O*NET rates each occupation on this dimension on a 1–5 context-importance scale (the CX scale), where higher means the condition is a more frequent or more central part of the work. The figures on this page are those occupation-level ratings — a description of working conditions as workers report them, not a judgment about pay, difficulty, or whether a job is "good."
| Economy-wide average | 3.31 / 5 | Mean across all 894 rated occupations |
| Range across occupations | 1.18–5.00 | Lowest to highest occupation rating (spread 3.82) |
| Intensity vs. other dimensions | 72nd pct | Where this dimension's average ranks among all O*NET work-context dimensions |
Occupations where it's highest
The occupations that rate this condition strongest on the 1–5 scale.
Occupations where it's lowest
The occupations that rate this condition weakest — where it is rarely part of the work.
How AI is used by roles where spend time using your hands to handle, control, or feel objects, tools, or controls is central
A working condition is not itself "being automated" — but we can look at the occupations where it is most central and ask how those people actually use AI. This rolls the Anthropic Economic Index per-role signal up across the roles that rate this condition 3 or higher (CX-rating-weighted). 47.0% of the 525 occupations where this condition is present carry observed AI-usage data (247 roles).
Across those roles, 38.1% of AI conversations are people working with AI and 32.3% hand a task to AI , with an average autonomy of 3.48 / 5.
| Collaboration pattern | Share | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| directive | 28.8% | AI does it; you give the instruction |
| learning | 20.1% | you ask AI to explain or teach |
| task iteration | 16.9% | you and AI go back and forth |
| feedback loop | 3.5% | AI does it, then adjusts from your feedback |
| validation | 1.1% | you do it; AI checks your work |
Roles behind this signal
The occupations where this condition is most central and that also have the most AEI data. "Works with AI" is the role's share of conversations that augment rather than automate.
| Occupation | Condition (1–5) | Works with AI | Autonomy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poets, Lyricists and Creative Writers | 3.5 | 46.2% | 4.0/5 |
| Technical Writers | 3.5 | 54.2% | 4.0/5 |
| Office Clerks, General | 3.0 | 36.5% | 3.0/5 |
| Education Teachers, Postsecondary | 3.1 | 65.3% | 3.5/5 |
| Multimedia Artists and Animators | 4.3 | 52.1% | 4.0/5 |
| Cashiers | 3.5 | 42.8% | 3.0/5 |
| Computer, Automated Teller, and Office Machine Repairers | 4.2 | 33.4% | 4.0/5 |
| Credit Counselors | 3.6 | 71.6% | 3.0/5 |
| Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants | 3.4 | 52.8% | 3.0/5 |
| Retail Salespersons | 3.1 | 31.4% | 4.0/5 |
| Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators | 4.6 | 50.0% | 4.0/5 |
| Pharmacists | 3.1 | 73.9% | 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. This is a role-weighted projection from AEI-linked occupations where this condition is central, not a direct measurement of AI use for the condition itself. Shares are weighted by how central the condition is to each role; some conversations are left unclassified by Anthropic's taxonomy, so shares need not sum to 100.
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.
- O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
- Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.
Cite this page
Singulariki. "Spend Time Using Your Hands to Handle, Control, or Feel Objects, Tools, or Controls." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27). Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/work-context/spend-time-using-your-hands-to-handle-control-or-feel-objects-tools-or-controls
Singulariki. (2026). Spend Time Using Your Hands to Handle, Control, or Feel Objects, Tools, or Controls. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/work-context/spend-time-using-your-hands-to-handle-control-or-feel-objects-tools-or-controls
@misc{singulariki-spend-time-using-your-hands-to-handle-control-or-feel-objects-tools-or-controls,
title = {Spend Time Using Your Hands to Handle, Control, or Feel Objects, Tools, or Controls},
author = {{Singulariki}},
year = {2026},
note = {O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27). Accessed June 7, 2026},
url = {https://singulariki.com/work-context/spend-time-using-your-hands-to-handle-control-or-feel-objects-tools-or-controls}
} Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.