Compare Occupations

	Cooling and Freezing Equipment Operators and Tenders	Industrial Machinery Mechanics	Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators	Stationary Engineers and Boiler Operators
SUMMARY	67% High Risk	41% Moderate Risk	38% Low Risk	43% Moderate Risk
JOB SCORE	3.8/10	6.4/10	4.0/10	4.6/10
POLLING	There hasn't been enough votes on this occupation yet	36% (Low Risk, Based on 66 votes)	37% (Low Risk, Based on 77 votes)	56% (Moderate Risk, Based on 50 votes)
GROWTH by year 2034	7.2%	16.1%	-6.5%	2.2%
WAGES	$40,160 or $19.31 per hour	$63,760 or $30.65 per hour	$58,260 or $28.01 per hour	$75,190 or $36.15 per hour
VOLUME as of 2024	6,590	421,940	126,750	30,780
SNOWFLAKE [?] 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.
DESCRIPTION	Operate or tend equipment such as cooling and freezing units, refrigerators, batch freezers, and freezing tunnels, to cool or freeze products, food, blood plasma, and chemicals.	Repair, install, adjust, or maintain industrial production and processing machinery or refinery and pipeline distribution systems. May also install, dismantle, or move machinery and heavy equipment according to plans.	Operate or control an entire process or system of machines, often through the use of control boards, to transfer or treat water or wastewater.	Operate or maintain stationary engines, boilers, or other mechanical equipment to provide utilities for buildings or industrial processes. Operate equipment such as steam engines, generators, motors, turbines, and steam boilers.

Compare Occupations Side by Side

Curious how automation and AI could affect your career? Our comparison tool lets you view two or more jobs side by side, helping you quickly spot differences in risk level, pay, growth, and popularity. All of this is based on a mix of academic research, user polling, and official labour data.

Automation Risk

Each occupation shows a probability of automation. A higher score means machines and algorithms are more likely to take over the role in the future.

Job Score

A quick summary of how a job performs overall — factoring in wages, growth, volume, and automation risk. It’s a handy way to see the bigger picture at a glance.

Polling Data

Thousands of visitors cast their votes on how “automatable” each job feels. These community insights are shown alongside the calculated probabilities.

Growth & Wages

See how fast each occupation is projected to grow and what people earn on average. High wages don’t always mean high security — automation risk still matters.

Volume of Workers

Explore how many people currently work in each occupation and in which year the data was recorded. Popularity can affect how disruptive automation will be for the wider economy.

The Snowflake Diagram

Each snowflake visualises the balance between automation risk, wages, growth, and job volume. Bigger and greener areas mean stronger performance in that dimension.

Use this comparison page to research careers, guide students, or simply explore the future of work. All data is regularly updated to keep the results relevant.