Career Explorer Personal care
Human edge, steady
Embalmers
Prepare bodies for interment in conformity with legal requirements.
Among the most resilient careers: more resilient than 87% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is very low (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it low), and US jobs are projected to change by +0.7% by 2035, slower than average. The work leans on ethical judgement and physical dexterity.
AI struggles with much of this work. Hiring is expected to grow slower than average, or to shrink.
- Median pay (2025)
- $58,780
- Job growth to 2035
- +0.7%
- Openings a year
- 700
- People doing it (2025)
- 3,900
- Usual route in
- Associate's degree, then long on-the-job training
Where people already use AI for this work
- Arrange displays or decorations
- Maintain facilities or equipment
- Apply decorative finishes
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Embalm corpses
- Direct organizational operations, activities, or procedures
- Move materials, equipment, or supplies
What the work looks like
- Conform to laws of health and sanitation and ensure that legal requirements concerning embalming are met.
- Apply cosmetics to impart lifelike appearance to the deceased.
- Join lips, using needles and thread or wire.
- Close incisions, using needles and sutures.
- Incise stomach and abdominal walls and probe internal organs, using trocar, to withdraw blood and waste matter from organs.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- Fewer of these jobs, as more cremations take place and fewer embalming services are needed.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Veterinary technologists and techniciansHuman edge, growing, Index 95, +9.4%
- FirefightersHuman edge, growing, Index 91, +3.7%
- Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineersHuman edge, growing, Index 96, +8.3%
- Surgical technologistsHuman edge, growing, Index 90, +5.0%
Also known as: Embalmer, Licensed Embalmer, Trade Embalmer.
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Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections 2025 to 2035; O*NET 31.0; Microsoft Research (2025); Anthropic Economic Index (2026); Eloundou and colleagues (Science, 2024); Felten, Raj and Seamans (2023). How we score. Updated 12 October 2026.