Career Explorer Production
Human edge, steady
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and tenders
Set up, operate, or tend machines to mix or blend materials, such as chemicals, tobacco, liquids, color pigments, or explosive ingredients.
In the middle of the pack: more resilient than 52% 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 -6.1% 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)
- $48,990
- Job growth to 2035
- -6.1%
- Openings a year
- 7,900
- People doing it (2025)
- 97,300
- Usual route in
- High school diploma, then moderate on-the-job training
Where people already use AI for this work
- Prepare mixtures or solutions
- Read documents or materials to inform work processes
- Measure physical characteristics of materials, products, or equipment
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Operate industrial processing or production equipment
- Load products, materials, or equipment for transportation or further processing
- Operate pumping systems or equipment
What the work looks like
- Weigh or measure materials, ingredients, or products to ensure conformance to requirements.
- Read work orders to determine production specifications or information.
- Observe production or monitor equipment to ensure safe and efficient operation.
- Mix or blend ingredients by starting machines and mixing for specified times.
- Stop mixing or blending machines when specified product qualities are obtained and open valves and start pumps to transfer mixtures.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- Fewer of these jobs, as automated manufacturing processes require fewer manual tasks to be performed by these workers.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Furnace, kiln, oven, drier, and kettle operators and tendersHuman edge, steady, Index 73, +2.6%
- Metal-refining furnace operators and tendersHuman edge, steady, Index 58, -2.9%
- Extruding and forming machine setters, operators, and tenders, synthetic and glass fibersHuman edge, steady, Index 56, -3.3%
- Cooling and freezing equipment operators and tendersHuman edge, growing, Index 90, +5.9%
Also known as: Blender, Machine Operator, Mixer, Mixer Operator, Batchmaker, Blending Technician (Blending Tech), Ink Blender, Issuing 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.