Career Explorer Production
Human edge, steady
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and tenders
Set up, operate, or tend paper goods machines that perform a variety of functions, such as converting, sawing, corrugating, banding, wrapping, boxing, stitching, forming, or sealing paper or paperboard sheets into products.
In the middle of the pack: more resilient than 59% 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 -3.6% by 2035, expected to shrink. 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)
- $50,270
- Job growth to 2035
- -3.6%
- Openings a year
- 9,000
- People doing it (2025)
- 96,100
- 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
- Set up equipment
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Load products, materials, or equipment for transportation or further processing
- Position workpieces or materials on equipment
- Monitor equipment operation
What the work looks like
- Examine completed work to detect defects and verify conformance to work orders, and adjust machinery as necessary to correct production problems.
- Observe operation of various machines to detect and correct machine malfunctions such as improper forming, glue flow, or pasteboard tension.
- Install attachments to machines for gluing, folding, printing, or cutting.
- Cut products to specified dimensions, using hand or power cutters.
- Place rolls of paper or cardboard on machine feed tracks, and thread paper through gluing, coating, and slitting rollers.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and tendersHuman edge, steady, Index 62, -0.9%
- Packaging and filling machine operators and tendersHuman edge, growing, Index 91, +4.1%
- Butchers and meat cuttersHuman edge, steady, Index 66, +2.4%
- Cooling and freezing equipment operators and tendersHuman edge, growing, Index 90, +5.9%
Also known as: Cup Room Technician, Folder Machine Operator, Paper Machine Backtender, Paper Machine Operator, Corrugator Operator, Gluer Operator, Paper Cutter Operator, Stitching Machine 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.