BLS 2024–2034 · O*NET

Career rankings

Occupations ranked across seven lenses, AI exposure, projected growth, and pay, from BLS Employment Projections and the O*NET task database covering 832 U.S. occupations. Methodology.

Download the occupation AI-exposure extract cited on this page: occupation-ai-exposure-landscape.csv (CC0).

832
Occupations ranked
581
Projected to grow
272
High AI exposure
7
Ranking lenses

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2024) and Employment Projections 2024-2034, 169,956,400 reported 2024 jobs are ranked across these seven lenses; see the methodology for how each ranking is computed.

The ranking in one line

Family medicine physicians is #1 of 809 occupations by median wage ($238K, growth rank #387 at 2.7%) vs. Wind turbine service technicians #1 by projected growth (49.9%, wage rank #351 at $63K).

$238K
Family medicine physicians wage (#1)
#387
Family medicine physicians growth rank
49.9%
Wind turbine service technicians growth (#1)
#351
Wind turbine service technicians wage rank

Median wage is from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics; projected growth is from BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034. A ranking is a comparison of these measures, not career advice.

Answer at a glance

PlainWorkforce ranks 832 U.S. occupations by AI exposure, projected growth, pay, and employment size. The seven rankings combine U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections and wage data with PlainWorkforce's O*NET task analysis, so readers can compare the same source-backed measures across occupations rather than treat a single score as career advice.

Pay ≠ growth

Family medicine physicians is #1 of 809 occupations by median wage ($238K, growth rank #387 at 2.7%) vs. Wind turbine service technicians #1 by projected growth (49.9%, wage rank #351 at $63K).

$238K
Family medicine physicians wage (#1)
#387
Family medicine physicians growth rank
49.9%
Wind turbine service technicians growth (#1)
#351
Wind turbine service technicians wage rank

Median wage from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics; growth from BLS Employment Projections 2024-2034.

Growth-pace inventory

Exclusive cut of 832 occupations by BLS growth category. Orthogonal to the pay≠growth dual (which names two leaders) and to the seven ranked top-N lists below, this is the full-corpus pace mix.

The landscape these rankings slice

Every ranking below is a slice of one chart: the 16 largest occupations by AI exposure (horizontal) and projected growth (vertical). The "safest from AI" list lives top-left; "most at-risk" lives bottom-right.

Future-proofGrowing but exposedStable, lower-AIMost at risk16.8%34.4%52%69.6%87.2%-11.2%-3.8%3.5%10.9%18.3%AI exposure (%) →Projected growth (%) →Home health, AI exposure (%) →: 35% · Projected growth (%) →: 17%Home healthRetail salespersons, AI exposure (%) →: 45% · Projected growth (%) →: -0.5%Retail salespersonsFast food, AI exposure (%) →: 38% · Projected growth (%) →: 6.1%Fast foodGeneral, AI exposure (%) →: 37% · Projected growth (%) →: 4.4%GeneralRegistered nurses, AI exposure (%) →: 26% · Projected growth (%) →: 4.9%Registered nursesCashiers, AI exposure (%) →: 61% · Projected growth (%) →: -9.9%CashiersLaborers, AI exposure (%) →: 23% · Projected growth (%) →: 1.5%LaborersCustomer service repre, AI exposure (%) →: 56% · Projected growth (%) →: -5.5%Customer service repreStockers, AI exposure (%) →: 43% · Projected growth (%) →: 8.5%StockersOffice clerks, AI exposure (%) →: 84% · Projected growth (%) →: -6.7%Office clerksJanitors, AI exposure (%) →: 22% · Projected growth (%) →: 2%JanitorsWaiters, AI exposure (%) →: 45% · Projected growth (%) →: -0.7%WaitersHeavy, AI exposure (%) →: 43% · Projected growth (%) →: 4%HeavySecretaries, AI exposure (%) →: 77% · Projected growth (%) →: -1.6%SecretariesSoftware developers, AI exposure (%) →: 45% · Projected growth (%) →: 15.8%Software developersMaintenance, AI exposure (%) →: 20% · Projected growth (%) →: 3.8%Maintenance

Bubble size = employment. Source: BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; AI-exposure scores are PlainWorkforce's analysis of O*NET data.

Most At-Risk from AI

Occupations with the highest AI exposure scores, most likely to be disrupted by automation.

See all 50 →
  1. 1 Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks 95%
  2. 2 Billing and posting clerks 88%
  3. 3 Accountants and auditors 87%
  4. 4 Office clerks, general 84%
  5. 5 Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants 83%

Safest from AI

Occupations with the lowest AI exposure scores, most resilient to automation.

See all 50 →
  1. 1 Helpers--electricians 5%
  2. 2 Physicians, all other 11%
  3. 3 Manufactured building and mobile home installers 11%
  4. 4 Pediatricians, general 13%
  5. 5 Electricians 13%

Fastest Growing

Occupations with the highest projected employment growth through 2034.

See all 50 →
  1. 1 Wind turbine service technicians +49.9%
  2. 2 Solar photovoltaic installers +42.1%
  3. 3 Nurse practitioners +40.1%
  4. 4 Data scientists +33.5%
  5. 5 Information security analysts +28.5%

Fastest Declining

Occupations with the largest projected employment declines through 2034.

See all 50 →
  1. 1 Word processors and typists -36.1%
  2. 2 Roof bolters, mining -34.2%
  3. 3 Telephone operators -27.5%
  4. 4 Switchboard operators, including answering service -26.3%
  5. 5 Data entry keyers -25.9%

Highest Paying

Occupations with the highest median annual wages.

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  1. 1 Family medicine physicians $238,380
  2. 2 General internal medicine physicians $236,350
  3. 3 Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers $226,600
  4. 4 Dentists, all other specialists $225,770
  5. 5 Nurse anesthetists $223,210

High Pay + Growing

High-paying occupations that are also projected to grow, best of both worlds.

See all 50 →
  1. 1 Family medicine physicians $238,380
  2. 2 General internal medicine physicians $236,350
  3. 3 Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers $226,600
  4. 4 Dentists, all other specialists $225,770
  5. 5 Nurse anesthetists $223,210

Largest Occupations

Occupations with the largest current employment totals.

See all 50 →
  1. 1 Home health and personal care aides 4.3M
  2. 2 Retail salespersons 3.9M
  3. 3 Fast food and counter workers 3.8M
  4. 4 General and operations managers 3.7M
  5. 5 Registered nurses 3.4M