Career Explorer Office and admin
Changing shape
Telephone operators
Provide information by accessing alphabetical, geographical, or other directories. Assist customers with special billing requests, such as charges to a third party and credits or refunds for incorrectly dialed numbers or bad connections. May handle emergency calls and assist children or people with physical disabilities to make telephone calls.
Among the careers AI is changing fastest: more resilient than 1% of the 831 careers we score. AI exposure is high (the Bureau of Labor Statistics rates it high), and US jobs are projected to change by -27.6% by 2035, expected to shrink. The work leans on emotional intelligence.
AI can do many of the tasks, and hiring is expected to grow slower than average or to shrink. The job is likely to change, so build the human parts of it.
- Median pay (2025)
- $41,740
- Job growth to 2035
- -27.6%
- Openings a year
- 200
- People doing it (2025)
- 3,500
- Usual route in
- High school diploma, then short on-the-job training
Where people already use AI for this work
- Operate communications equipment or systems
- Provide information to guests, clients, or customers
- Gather information from physical or electronic sources
From Microsoft Research, Working with AI (2025).
Work AI rarely helps with
- Assist individuals with special needs
- Sort materials or products
- Maintain operational records
What the work looks like
- Observe signal lights on switchboards, and dial or press buttons to make connections.
- Operate paging systems or other systems of bells or buzzers to notify recipients of incoming calls.
- Operate telephone switchboards and systems to advance and complete connections, including those for local, long distance, pay telephone, mobile, person-to-person, and emergency calls.
- Listen to customer requests, referring to alphabetical or geographical directories to answer questions and provide telephone information.
- Monitor automated systems for placing collect calls and intervene for a callers needing assistance.
From O*NET 31.0, US Department of Labor.
What the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects
- Fewer of these jobs, as companies continue to adopt automated phone systems.
Careers using similar strengths, with a stronger outlook
- Postal service clerksHuman edge, steady, Index 19, -0.3%
- Hosts and hostesses, restaurant, lounge, and coffee shopChanging shape, Index 31, +3.4%
- Ushers, lobby attendants, and ticket takersHuman edge, steady, Index 33, +0.9%
- Insurance claims and policy processing clerksChanging shape, Index 2, -1.9%
Also known as: 411 Directory Assistance Operator (411 Directory Assistance Op), Directory Assistance Operator (Directory Assistance Op), Phone Operator (Telephone Operator), TELECOM Op (Telecommunications Operator), Information Specialist, Live Source Operator (Live Source Op), Long Distance Operator (LD Operator), PBX Operator (Post Box Exchange 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.