Wear Common Protective or Safety Equipment such as Safety Shoes, Glasses, Gloves, Hearing Protection, Hard Hats, or Life Jackets
Work context · O*NET
Wear Common Protective or Safety Equipment such as Safety Shoes, Glasses, Gloves, Hearing Protection, Hard Hats, or Life Jackets 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 often does this job require wearing common protective or safety equipment such as safety shoes, glasses, gloves, hearing protection, hard hats or life-jackets?." It is rated for 891 occupations, which average 2.99 out of 5 (moderate 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 | 2.99 / 5 | Mean across all 891 rated occupations |
| Range across occupations | 1.00–5.00 | Lowest to highest occupation rating (spread 4.00) |
| Intensity vs. other dimensions | 52nd 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.
| Occupation | Rating | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Lawyers | 1.00 | |
| Legal Secretaries and Administrative Assistants | 1.00 | |
| Loan Interviewers and Clerks | 1.00 | |
| Mathematical Science Teachers, Postsecondary | 1.00 | |
| Mathematicians | 1.00 | |
| Mental Health Counselors | 1.00 | |
| New Accounts Clerks | 1.00 | |
| Personal Financial Advisors | 1.00 | |
| Philosophy and Religion Teachers, Postsecondary | 1.00 | |
| Poets, Lyricists and Creative Writers | 1.00 | |
| Political Science Teachers, Postsecondary | 1.00 | |
| Political Scientists | 1.00 | |
| Proofreaders and Copy Markers | 1.00 | |
| Psychology Teachers, Postsecondary | 1.00 | |
| Social and Community Service Managers | 1.00 | |
| Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary | 1.00 | |
| Talent Directors | 1.00 | |
| Tax Preparers | 1.00 | |
| Telemarketers | 1.00 | |
| Title Examiners, Abstractors, and Searchers | 1.00 | |
| Travel Agents | 1.00 | |
| Treasurers and Controllers | 1.00 | |
| Tutors | 1.00 | |
| Word Processors and Typists | 1.00 | |
| Writers and Authors | 1.00 |
How AI is used by roles where wear common protective or safety equipment such as safety shoes, glasses, gloves, hearing protection, hard hats, or life jackets 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). 43.9% of the 449 occupations where this condition is present carry observed AI-usage data (197 roles).
Across those roles, 37.3% of AI conversations are people working with AI and 30.4% hand a task to AI , with an average autonomy of 3.51 / 5.
| Collaboration pattern | Share | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| directive | 26.8% | AI does it; you give the instruction |
| learning | 22.2% | you ask AI to explain or teach |
| task iteration | 13.7% | you and AI go back and forth |
| feedback loop | 3.6% | AI does it, then adjusts from your feedback |
| validation | 1.4% | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chemistry Teachers, Postsecondary | 3.6 | 66.0% | 4.0/5 |
| Chemists | 4.8 | 61.8% | 4.0/5 |
| Correctional Officers and Jailers | 4.1 | 52.7% | 3.0/5 |
| Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators | 3.5 | 50.0% | 4.0/5 |
| Nurse Practitioners | 4.3 | 69.1% | 4.0/5 |
| Biological Technicians | 4.3 | 55.5% | 4.0/5 |
| Chemical Technicians | 5.0 | 53.9% | 4.0/5 |
| Molecular and Cellular Biologists | 4.8 | 57.2% | 3.8/5 |
| Robotics Engineers | 3.9 | 42.0% | 4.0/5 |
| Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop | 3.0 | 57.5% | 3.0/5 |
| Biochemists and Biophysicists | 4.2 | 64.5% | 4.0/5 |
| Materials Scientists | 4.3 | 49.0% | 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. 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. "Wear Common Protective or Safety Equipment such as Safety Shoes, Glasses, Gloves, Hearing Protection, Hard Hats, or Life Jackets." 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/wear-common-protective-or-safety-equipment-such-as-safety-shoes-glasses-gloves-hearing-protection-hard-hats-or-life-jackets
Singulariki. (2026). Wear Common Protective or Safety Equipment such as Safety Shoes, Glasses, Gloves, Hearing Protection, Hard Hats, or Life Jackets. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/work-context/wear-common-protective-or-safety-equipment-such-as-safety-shoes-glasses-gloves-hearing-protection-hard-hats-or-life-jackets
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title = {Wear Common Protective or Safety Equipment such as Safety Shoes, Glasses, Gloves, Hearing Protection, Hard Hats, or Life Jackets},
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/wear-common-protective-or-safety-equipment-such-as-safety-shoes-glasses-gloves-hearing-protection-hard-hats-or-life-jackets}
} Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.