Barbers

Low pay & lowrisk
Moderate Risk
Low High

Explore safer careers (4)

Lower estimated automation risk

Career/Technical Education Teachers, Postsecondary
22% automation risk | Low Risk
Pays better More jobs
19.1 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Uses barbering technique, licensing knowledge, sanitation, demonstrations, hands-on correction, and student feedback.

Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists
33% automation risk | Low Risk
More jobs
8.1 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Directly reuses hair cutting, styling, sanitation, tools, client consultation, appointment timing, and grooming advice.

Spa Managers
26% automation risk | Low Risk
Pays better Higher growth
15.1 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Applies personal-service operations, client experience, staff scheduling, retail products, supplies, and sanitation standards.

First-Line Supervisors of Personal Service Workers
31% automation risk | Low Risk
Pays better Higher growth
9.8 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Fits experienced barbers using appointment flow, sanitation standards, staff coaching, supplies, service recovery, and quality checks.

Compare this job with others
or search for another job
Share your results with friends and family.

Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
4.2/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

41% (Moderate Risk)

Moderate Risk (41-60%): This occupation may be meaningfully affected by automation. Some parts of the role may be suitable for AI, software, or robotics, while others still rely on human skill, judgement, trust, or real-world context. People in this range may benefit from building skills that complement automation and reduce replacement risk.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Working directly with the public

Very important
Why this matters
The job involves face-to-face interaction with customers, clients, or guests—answering questions, handling requests, and managing service situations in real time. Roles with frequent public interaction are harder to replace end-to-end because they rely on trust, communication, and adapting to unpredictable human needs.
Jobs that also use this strength

Assisting and caring for others

Quite important
Why this matters
Provide hands-on help, emotional support, or personal care to people—work that depends on empathy, trust, and responding to individual needs in the moment.
Jobs that also use this strength

Thinking creatively

Quite important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
Jobs that also use this strength

Decision-making and problem solving

Quite important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
Jobs that also use this strength

Psychology knowledge

Quite important
Why this matters
Understanding human behavior, motivation, and individual differences to assess needs, respond appropriately, and support behavior change or mental health.
Jobs that also use this strength

What users think

Based on 445 votes

34% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 41% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Barbers will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

Very low paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Barbers was $38,960 ($19 per hour).

The median annual wage for Barbers was 21.3% lower than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Barbers' job openings is expected to rise 4.1% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Lower range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 18,100 people employed as 'Barbers' within the United States.

This represents around < 0.001% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 8 thousand people are employed as 'Barbers'.

People also viewed

Lawyers Computer Programmers Actors Web Developers Graphic Designers

What people are saying (16)

Leave a comment
LJ (No chance)
20 Dec 2025 16:20
No hair style is ever the same and to fully automate the task needs to be the mostly the same each time.
car
19 Mar 2025 23:04
i think it's definetely possible but the biggest concern is safety. Since its a robot though, it could be accurate enough to not have to use something dangerous to cut the hair.
@mcfc_seb (Highly likely)
23 Nov 2023 14:54
You have priters 3d with such a details. Im not saying its gonna be barber “come&go”. It will be something like head scan first, then programmed hair style, so you put kind of helmet and wait. They will have all your data for the next time.
WS
16 Nov 2023 14:46
The day when robots become dexterous enough to get into barbering is the day when humans will be rendered completely useless.
Tarcísio (Low)
22 Mar 2023 01:13
It's very difficult because if you use a machine, the client might move, but it's not impossible.
NMS (No chance)
22 Dec 2022 18:02
It'll be a long time before anyone trusts a robot with a razor blade near their neck. Robots still lack dexterity, and people seem to underestimate how insanely good humans are at hand-eye coordination. Also, people like their barber's being human. It's a very personal job and hairstyles are an expression of individuality for some.
Johnny (Highly likely)
19 Oct 2022 16:12
Robots can make this process much more accurate and efficient
Zielony Kapelusznik (Low)
15 Mar 2022 17:26
I think that no robotic "hands" will be able to replace human hands in styling hair or cutting hair. After all, it wouldn't be very safe, due to the risk of injuring the person being cut, because even with perfect accuracy, the software may just not be able to adjust the way of cutting to each client's head.
Aakash (Low)
26 Nov 2021 15:30
I don't think so. The precision of hand control needed to do that is comparable to that of a surgeon.
Jake
06 Jun 2021 20:30
I’ll be surprised if it can even do a skin fade
oooooo (Low)
10 Jan 2021 15:29
Mostly unlikely. Robots do not have the Dexterity for such tasks yet and still far from that stage
Bernard Everstein (No chance)
20 Oct 2020 21:08
not cost effective, high risk factor, artistic decisions, not a chance this job is leaving human hands
Robotslayer
24 Sep 2020 17:32
That's nonsense. Robots cannot have the same attention to detail and dexterity humans have. Maybe in 100 years.
Mart (No chance)
12 May 2020 20:29
Robots will highly likely never have the same attention to detail, technique, resourcefulness or dexterity to do a skin fade!
ben Franklin (Low)
09 Sep 2019 17:14
we will probably not be that advanced yet in society
Chazzadog420
12 Jun 2019 05:06
This is reassuring thanks
Leave a reply about this occupation
0/8000

Job description

Provide barbering services, such as cutting, trimming, shampooing, and styling hair; trimming beards; or giving shaves.

O*NET-SOC code: 39-5011.00