Cost Estimators

Low Risk
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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
4.3/10
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

32% (Low Risk)

Low Risk (21-40%): This occupation has a lower risk of full replacement by AI, software, or robotic systems. Some tasks may be automated or assisted, but the role usually still relies on human judgement, communication, responsibility, physical adaptability, or practical decision-making.

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.

Decision-making and problem solving

Very 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.
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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.
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Social perceptiveness

Quite important
Why this matters
Noticing others’ emotions and reactions in the moment and adjusting what you say or do based on why they’re responding that way.
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Persuasion

Quite important
Why this matters
Influencing people to change their minds or behavior through conversation, trust, and negotiation.
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Coaching and developing others

Quite important
Why this matters
Helps people learn and improve through coaching, mentoring, and feedback. This relies on trust, motivation, and adapting guidance to each person—work that’s hard to replace end-to-end with automation.
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Show 4 more strengths

Coordinating others’ work

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together, assigning tasks, and keeping a group aligned so work gets done.
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Communicating with people outside the organization

Quite important
Why this matters
Represents the organization to customers, the public, or government—handling questions, concerns, and relationship-building through conversations, writing, calls, or email.
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Consulting and advising others

Quite important
Why this matters
Provide guidance and expert advice to managers or teams on technical, system, or process decisions—explaining options, tradeoffs, and recommended actions.
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Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
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What users think

Based on 126 votes

50% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted they are unsure if this occupation will be automated. However, employees may be able to find reassurance in the automated risk level we have generated, which shows 32% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Cost Estimators 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

High paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Cost Estimators was $77,070 ($37 per hour).

The median annual wage for Cost Estimators was 55.7% higher 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

Very slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Cost Estimators' job openings is expected to decline 4.2% 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

Greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 219,530 people employed as 'Cost Estimators' within the United States.

This represents around 0.14% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 702 people are employed as 'Cost Estimators'.

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What people are saying (5)

Leave a comment
AR (Highly likely)
22 Jan 2024 17:31
99% of my job is working in various programs (planswift, excel, bluebeam, etc) so it's just a matter of when they can automate those programs. High level humans will remain, as there will be too many unknowns to be accounted for.
Dozerking
28 Jul 2024 16:47
Agreed. I use the same programs including Agtek for Earthwork which was once done by hand back in the early 90's before Paydirt and others like Agtek came along. These still need humans but I can see this being automated eventually. GPS in machines can automate to perform cuts and fills but there still needs to be a human in the cab, but who knows how long that will eventually go to a remote drone like system out in the field. Of course, safety would be the biggest hurdle here. I believe takeoff will be automated eventually in our lifetimes but as you said, there are too many unknowns in construction that it will be quite sometime in order to remove the human element. Project management is another one. I guess eventually when they have units like Data from Star Trek, then everything is on the table...
Mack (Low)
19 May 2023 13:13
Estimations require human overview to determine cost v value, feasibility, weighing up real-time economic trends, personalised and unique designs from client etc.

Tasks such as drawing takeoff and generating schedules can be automated to a certain extent but still require human spot check and verification.

Admin tasks to set up and administer contracts can be automated.
Alhasan (Moderate)
12 Jul 2022 09:43
This job is likely to become automated gradually, as it is becoming more dependent on software. It requires machine learning and automated market research.
Sam (Highly likely)
20 Jan 2020 02:39
Too simple
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Job description

Prepare cost estimates for product manufacturing, construction projects, or services to aid management in bidding on or determining price of product or service. May specialize according to particular service performed or type of product manufactured.

O*NET-SOC code: 13-1051.00