Editors

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
4.6/10
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

38% (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.

Thinking creatively

Very 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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Communicating with people outside the organization

Very 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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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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Negotiation

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together to reconcile differences, trade off priorities, and reach agreements—work that depends on trust, persuasion, and reading the situation.
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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.
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Show 3 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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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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Education and training expertise

Quite important
Why this matters
Designing and delivering instruction—adapting lessons to different learners and measuring whether training actually works.
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What users think

Based on 269 votes

49% 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 38% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Editors 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 Editors was $75,260 ($36 per hour).

The median annual wage for Editors was 52.0% 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

Slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Editors' job openings is expected to rise 0.6% 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

Moderate range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 95,480 people employed as 'Editors' within the United States.

This represents around 0.06% of the employed workforce across the country

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

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What people are saying (7)

Leave a comment
B (Uncertain)
01 Nov 2025 17:18
I think that AI can't replace creativity and other stuff that is needed to be a video editor in 100% but we will see.
SW (Low)
17 Aug 2023 11:23
Editors shouldn’t be concerned about AI replacing them. They should be concerned about being replaced by editors who know how to use AI.
TL;DR: Keep your skills current and learn how to use AI as a tool. Work smarter not harder.
Heather (Low)
18 Mar 2023 15:59
I am a marketing editor and know the human nuances required to create relevant and unique copy.
Jay
20 Feb 2023 05:07
Highly likely to see AI replace many jobs. It will only get better from here in out. Human editors will merely review the information generated. I believe AI will increase in emotional intelligence.
Zio
08 Jan 2020 00:56
Even if AI reaches a point at which it can write technical concepts, such as some bots we see today, there will still be a need for editors to look over everything afterwards and change the initial style and way of writing to fit the current emotional and social stance towards the audience or group of people the writing is intended. So maybe there will be a decrease for the need of editors but not full on automation until AI truly gains emotional intelligence.
papa danya (Low)
27 Sep 2019 11:04
My answer is based on the progress in machine translation we have seen over the last, say, 25 years. Editing (not generating smooth texts out of pre-processed blocks) requires a level of language capabilities yet unseen in AI-powered solutions.
Kyle. Raposo (No chance)
09 May 2019 17:14
It involves creativity, so unless we get a smart enough AI to have its own creativity and personality than there is no chance.
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Job description

Plan, coordinate, revise, or edit written material. May review proposals and drafts for possible publication.

O*NET-SOC code: 27-3041.00