Job Check
Cutters and Trimmers, Hand
Use hand tools or hand-held power tools to cut and trim a variety of manufactured items, such as carpet, fabric, stone, glass, or rubber.
10 main tasks · most important first
Your main tasks and AI
Importance- 01Mark or discard items with defects such as spots, stains, scars, snags, chips, scratches, or unacceptable shapes or finishes.Mostly human for now
- 02Trim excess material or cut threads off finished products, such as cutting loose ends of plastic off a manufactured toy for a smoother finish.Mostly human for now
- 03Cut, shape, and trim materials, such as textiles, food, glass, stone, and metal, using knives, scissors, and other hand tools, portable power tools, or bench-mounted tools.Mostly human for now
- 04Position templates or measure materials to locate specified points of cuts or to obtain maximum yields, using rules, scales, or patterns.Mostly human for now
- 05Read work orders to determine dimensions, cutting locations, and quantities to cut.Mostly human for now
- 06Mark cutting lines around patterns or templates, or follow layout points, using squares, rules, and straightedges, and chalk, pencils, or scribes.Mostly human for now
- 07Mark identification numbers, trademarks, grades, marketing data, sizes, or model numbers on products.Mostly human for now
- 08Unroll, lay out, attach, or mount materials or items on cutting tables or machines.Mostly human for now
- 09Separate materials or products according to size, weight, type, condition, color, or shade.Mostly human for now
- 10Fold or shape materials before or after cutting them.Mostly human for now
Tasks from O*NET® 31.0 (US Department of Labor, CC BY 4.0, changed by us), most important first. “Already use” comes from Anthropic’s data on real work chats with Claude; “could speed up” from task ratings made with GPT-4 in 2023.
Four studies, side by side
None is a forecast of job lossToo little dataNot enough work use was seen to measure. This does not mean the job is safe from AI.Anthropic, 2026
0%of this job’s tasks an AI model could do in half the time, counting tasks that need extra tools as half (rated in 2023).Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin and Rock, 2023
Above 11% of jobsin how often and how well AI helped with this job’s work in Microsoft Copilot chats (2024 data).Microsoft Research (Tomlinson et al.), 2025
Above 89% of jobsin how much of this job’s physical work robots have been shown to do, from factories to homes (2026).Anthropic, 2026
Your human edge
The main tasks with no real AI use seen and no big speed-up expected. This is where your skill counts most today.
- Mark or discard items with defects such as spots, stains, scars, snags, chips, scratches, or unacceptable shapes or finishes.
- Trim excess material or cut threads off finished products, such as cutting loose ends of plastic off a manufactured toy for a smoother finish.
- Cut, shape, and trim materials, such as textiles, food, glass, stone, and metal, using knives, scissors, and other hand tools, portable power tools, or bench-mounted tools.