Human edge, steady

Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, wood

Set up, operate, or tend wood sawing machines. May operate computer numerically controlled (CNC) equipment. Includes lead sawyers.

AI Resistance Index 57 of 99

In the middle of the pack: more resilient than 57% 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 -1.0% 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): $42,770
Job growth to 2035: -1.0%
Openings a year: 4,500
People doing it (2025): 41,200
Usual route in: High school diploma, then moderate on-the-job training

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Where people already use AI for this work

Adjust equipment to ensure adequate performance
Measure physical characteristics of materials, products, or equipment
Inspect characteristics or conditions of materials or products

From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).

Work AI rarely helps with

Maintain tools or equipment
Position workpieces or materials on equipment
Operate cutting or grinding equipment

What the work looks like

Inspect and measure workpieces to mark for cuts and to verify the accuracy of cuts, using rulers, squares, or caliper rules.
Adjust saw blades, using wrenches and rulers, or by turning handwheels or pressing pedals, levers, or panel buttons.
Mount and bolt sawing blades or attachments to machine shafts.
Adjust bolts, clamps, stops, guides, or table angles or heights, using hand tools.
Set up, operate, or tend saws or machines that cut or trim wood to specified dimensions, such as circular saws, band saws, multiple-blade sawing machines, scroll saws, ripsaws, or crozer machines.

From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.

What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects

Fewer of these jobs, as advances in CNC equipment allow for additional output to be produced by fewer woodworkers.

Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook

Slaughterers and meat packersHuman edge, steady, Index 71, +2.0%
Rock splitters, quarryHuman edge, growing, Index 92, +5.8%
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders, metal and plasticHuman edge, steady, Index 60, +0.7%
Ophthalmic laboratory techniciansHuman edge, steady, Index 68, +2.2%

Also known as: Resaw Operator, Rip Saw Operator, Saw Operator, Sawyer, Bandmill Operator, Cut Off Saw Operator, Edgerman, Knot Saw 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.