Telecommunications equipment installers and repairers, except line installers

Install, set up, rearrange, or remove switching, distribution, routing, and dialing equipment used in central offices or headends. Service or repair telephone, cable television, Internet, and other communications equipment on customers' property. May install communications equipment or communications wiring in buildings.

AI Resistance Index 29 of 99

Changing faster than most: more resilient than 29% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is moderate (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it high), and US jobs are projected to change by -3.3% by 2035, expected to shrink. The work leans on physical dexterity and creative vision.

AI struggles with much of this work. Hiring is expected to grow slower than average, or to shrink.

Median pay (2025): $63,890
Job growth to 2035: -3.3%
Openings a year: 11,300
People doing it (2025): 143,000
Usual route in: College certificate, then moderate on-the-job training

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Where people already use AI for this work

Test performance of equipment or systems
Connect components or supply lines to equipment or tools
Coordinate with others to resolve problems

From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).

Work AI rarely helps with

Clean tools, equipment, facilities, or work areas
Repair electrical or electronic equipment
Install commercial or production equipment

What the work looks like

Note differences in wire and cable colors so that work can be performed correctly.
Test circuits and components of malfunctioning telecommunications equipment to isolate sources of malfunctions, using test meters, circuit diagrams, polarity probes, and other hand tools.
Drive crew trucks to and from work areas.
Assemble and install communication equipment such as data and telephone communication lines, wiring, switching equipment, wiring frames, power apparatus, computer systems, and networks.
Run wires between components and to outside cable systems, connecting them to wires from telephone poles or underground cable accesses.

From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.

Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook

Automotive body and related repairersHuman edge, growing, Index 84, +3.7%
Avionics techniciansHuman edge, growing, Index 84, +9.4%
Electric motor, power tool, and related repairersHuman edge, growing, Index 88, +4.4%
Electrical and electronics repairers, commercial and industrial equipmentHuman edge, steady, Index 37, +0.3%

Also known as: Combination Technician (Combination Tech), Outside Plant Technician (Outside Plant Tech), Service Technician (Service Tech), Telecommunications Technician (Telecommunications Tech), Broadband Technician (Broadband Tech), Customer Service Technician (CST), Installer, Network Technician (Network Tech).

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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.