Career Explorer Farming, fishing, forestry
Human edge, steady
Logging equipment operators
Drive logging tractor or wheeled vehicle equipped with one or more accessories, such as bulldozer blade, frontal shear, grapple, logging arch, cable winches, hoisting rack, or crane boom, to fell tree; to skid, load, unload, or stack logs; or to pull stumps or clear brush. Includes operating stand-alone logging machines, such as log chippers.
More resilient than most: more resilient than 75% 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 -3.8% by 2035, expected to shrink. The work leans on physical dexterity and ethical judgement.
AI struggles with much of this work. Hiring is expected to grow slower than average, or to shrink.
- Median pay (2025)
- $49,740
- Job growth to 2035
- -3.8%
- Openings a year
- 3,700
- People doing it (2025)
- 29,300
- Usual route in
- High school diploma, then moderate on-the-job training
Where people already use AI for this work
- Measure physical characteristics of materials, products, or equipment
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Operate agricultural or forestry equipment
- Inspect commercial, industrial, or production systems or equipment
- Maintain tools or equipment
What the work looks like
- Inspect equipment for safety prior to use, and perform necessary basic maintenance tasks.
- Control hydraulic tractors equipped with tree clamps and booms to lift, swing, and bunch sheared trees.
- Grade logs according to characteristics such as knot size and straightness, and according to established industry or company standards.
- Drive and maneuver tractors and tree harvesters to shear the tops off of trees, cut and limb the trees, and cut the logs into desired lengths.
- Drive straight or articulated tractors equipped with accessories such as bulldozer blades, grapples, logging arches, cable winches, and crane booms to skid, load, unload, or stack logs, pull stumps, or clear brush.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- More of these jobs, as logging equipment operators will continue to take over some of the tasks performed by fallers and other logging workers who perform tasks by hand, given increased mechanization in the industry.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Roustabouts, oil and gasHuman edge, growing, Index 95, +3.6%
- Pump operators, except wellhead pumpersHuman edge, growing, Index 79, +4.3%
- Automotive and watercraft service attendantsHuman edge, growing, Index 92, +3.8%
- Transportation workers, all otherHuman edge, growing, Index 83, +4.0%
Also known as: Loader Operator, Logging Equipment Operator, Skidder Driver, Skidder Operator, Delimber Operator, Feller Buncher Operator, Harvester Operator, Log Processor 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.