Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand

Low pay & highrisk
High Risk
Low High

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Lower estimated automation 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
2.2/10
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

73% (High Risk)

High Risk (61-80%): This occupation shows a significant risk of end-to-end replacement by automation. Many core parts of the role may be structured, repeatable, software-driven, or physically predictable enough for AI, machines, or robotic systems to take over. If you work in this area, it may be worth exploring safer related careers or moving towards more human-centred responsibilities.

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.

We have not found any highly rated human strengths for this job yet.

What users think

Based on 80 votes

77% 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 73% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand 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 Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand was $38,940 ($19 per hour).

The median annual wage for Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand 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

Slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand' job openings is expected to rise 1.5% 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

Significantly greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 2,982,530 people employed as 'Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand' within the United States.

This represents around 1.9% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 51 people are employed as 'Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand'.

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What people are saying (3)

Joe
08 Mar 2023 05:22
The only warehouse job that's somewhat difficult to automate is picking. Every other job can be automated. It's just a matter of time.
Joe
02 Feb 2023 11:24
Amazon can literally use robots to automate their entire warehouse. The only thing robots somewhat struggle with is picking, but they improved dramatically over a few years. The only thing that can stop warehouses from becoming completely automated would be the cost of the robotics and the maintenance costs.
Sebastian Aguilar (Uncertain)
13 Sep 2019 17:56
With the industry, it could go either way since there will be the need to understand when physical eyes will need to be present to analyze the workplace. No majority of a population is going to change their career to engineering to be able to program every individual machine to perfection and eliminate that situation of environmental disaster.
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Job description

Manually move freight, stock, luggage, or other materials, or perform other general labor. Includes all manual laborers not elsewhere classified.

O*NET-SOC code: 53-7062.00