Career Explorer Production
Human edge, steady
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting machine setters, operators, and tenders
Set up, operate, or tend machines, such as glass-forming machines, plodder machines, and tuber machines, to shape and form products such as glassware, food, rubber, soap, brick, tile, clay, wax, tobacco, or cosmetics.
More resilient than most: more resilient than 65% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is low (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it low), and US jobs are projected to change by +1.5% by 2035, slower than average. The work leans on physical dexterity.
AI struggles with much of this work. Hiring is expected to grow slower than average, or to shrink.
- Median pay (2025)
- $45,760
- Job growth to 2035
- +1.5%
- Openings a year
- 5,200
- People doing it (2025)
- 58,300
- Usual route in
- High school diploma, then moderate on-the-job training
Where people already use AI for this work
- Adjust equipment to ensure adequate performance
- Measure physical characteristics of materials, products, or equipment
- Read documents or materials to inform work processes
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Operate industrial processing or production equipment
- Remove workpieces from production equipment
- Position workpieces or materials on equipment
What the work looks like
- Adjust machine components to regulate speeds, pressures, and temperatures, and amounts, dimensions, and flow of materials or ingredients.
- Press control buttons to activate machinery and equipment.
- Examine, measure, and weigh materials or products to verify conformance to standards, using measuring devices such as templates, micrometers, or scales.
- Activate machines to shape or form products, such as candy bars, light bulbs, balloons, or insulation panels.
- Monitor machine operations and observe lights and gauges to detect malfunctions.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- Fewer of these jobs, as automated food mixing, forming, and compacting equipment require fewer setters, operators, and tenders.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Food processing workers, all otherHuman edge, growing, Index 86, +5.5%
- Production workers, all otherHuman edge, steady, Index 79, +0.8%
- Electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers, except coil winders, tapers, and finishersHuman edge, growing, Index 73, +5.0%
- Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters, operators, and tendersHuman edge, steady, Index 78, +2.5%
Also known as: Extruder Operator, Extrusion Operator, Machine Operator, Press Operator, Glass Forming Crew Member, Tuber Operator.
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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.