Cooks, Fast Food

Imminent Risk
87%

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Vote Comments (9)
AUTOMATION RISK
CALCULATED
100%
(Imminent Risk)
POLLING
74%
(High Risk, Based on 280 votes)
Average: 87%
LABOR DEMAND
GROWTH
-13.7%
by year 2033
WAGES
$29,260
or $14.07 per hour
Volume
673,490
as of 2023
SUMMARY
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
1.4/10
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.

People also viewed

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Calculated automation risk

100% (Imminent Risk)

Imminent Risk (81-100%): Occupations in this level have an extremely high likelihood of being automated in the near future. These jobs consist primarily of repetitive, predictable tasks with little need for human judgment.

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

We haven't found any important qualities of this job that can't be easily automated

User poll

74% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted that it's probable this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 100% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Cooks, Fast Food will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

The following graph is shown where there are enough votes to produce meaningful data. It displays user poll results over time, providing a clear indication of sentiment trends.

Sentiment over time (yearly)

Growth

Very slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Cooks, Fast Food' job openings is expected to decline 13.7% by 2033

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.

Wages

Very low paid relative to other professions

In 2023, the median annual wage for 'Cooks, Fast Food' was $29,260, or $14 per hour

'Cooks, Fast Food' were paid 39.1% lower than the national median wage, which stood at $48,060

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Volume

Significantly greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2023 there were 673,490 people employed as 'Cooks, Fast Food' within the United States.

This represents around 0.44% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 225 people are employed as 'Cooks, Fast Food'.

Job description

Prepare and cook food in a fast food restaurant with a limited menu. Duties of these cooks are limited to preparation of a few basic items and normally involve operating large-volume single-purpose cooking equipment.

SOC Code: 35-2011.00

Comments (9)

Leave a comment
Macca
13 Nov 2025 20:20
Not right away for sure. Definitely not before white collar jobs. It just isn't cost effective right now to have robots doing fast food.
Tyler
07 Aug 2025 01:18
In the long run, yes. But not as dramatic as some are making it out to be. And honestly, one should only be toiling in Entry Level fast food prep for a season (like a job no more than 1 year) or 3 years max, move up, yo. It will cut a kitchen staff from 7 to 5.
jas (Highly likely)
12 Jun 2025 00:56
According to the McKinsey study, nearly 12 million Americans may need to switch occupations by 2030 due to automation and AI, many of them in the food service and retail sector. Cooks and food prep workers, your jobs could be 86% automated. I did reserched
Richard Connelly
07 Dec 2022 04:09
have seen flippy the robot, it's BEEN automated, it's just the weeding out now
Hugh Ganus
23 Jun 2021 06:23
What about the kids that want a first job at a fast food joint
123 (Moderate)
08 Aug 2020 12:40
因为至今已经有一些餐厅会使用机器来替代
OB (Moderate)
03 Jul 2019 08:58
Simple recipes and standardised processes
Corey Gillian Dixon
01 May 2019 01:23
Nah I love the locals at maccas, I don't no robot giving me the shareboxes, because everytime i walk in the door, Gary knows the usual, normally 25 shareboxes
4
14 Oct 2023 19:11
Robots will never be more cost-effective than humans. Ironically, it'll be the high-end jobs that will be taken first.
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