Sailors and Marine Oilers

High Risk
Low High

Explore safer careers (5)

Lower estimated automation risk

Captains, Mates, and Pilots of Water Vessels
33% automation risk | Low Risk
Pays better
30.6 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Uses seamanship, navigation, bridge watch, cargo safety, crew coordination, vessel rules, and licensing progression.

Ship Engineers
28% automation risk | Low Risk
Pays better
35.4 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Fits marine oilers using engine-room rounds, pumps, valves, lubrication, maintenance logs, safety, and machinery troubleshooting.

Maintenance and Repair Workers, General
38% automation risk | Low Risk
More jobs
25.4 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Reuses shipboard maintenance, tools, painting, basic mechanical repair, safety practices, work orders, and preventive upkeep.

Motorboat Operators
43% automation risk | Moderate Risk
20 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Directly reuses vessel handling, watchstanding, navigation awareness, passenger safety, lines, maintenance, and emergency procedures.

Cargo and Freight Agents
53% automation risk | Moderate Risk
Higher growth More jobs
10.4 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Transfers cargo documentation, port operations, shipping schedules, customer coordination, load status, and logistics terminology.

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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
4.1/10
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

63% (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.

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.
Jobs that also use this strength

Assisting and caring for others

Quite important
Why this matters
Provide hands-on help, emotional support, or personal care to people—work that depends on empathy, trust, and responding to individual needs in the moment.
Jobs that also use this strength

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.
Jobs that also use this strength

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.
Jobs that also use this strength

What users think

Based on 158 votes

40% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted they are unsure if this occupation will be automated. However, the automation risk level we have generated suggests a much higher chance of automation: 63% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Sailors and Marine Oilers 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

Low paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Sailors and Marine Oilers was $49,610 ($24 per hour).

The median annual wage for Sailors and Marine Oilers was 0.2% 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

Moderate growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Sailors and Marine Oilers' job openings is expected to rise 2.3% 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

Lower range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 31,360 people employed as 'Sailors and Marine Oilers' within the United States.

This represents around < 0.001% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 4 thousand people are employed as 'Sailors and Marine Oilers'.

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What people are saying (14)

Leave a comment
Danny (Low)
08 Oct 2024 10:36
Id like to hope that a mariners job would be unable to be replacd by ai as too much manual thinking and experience is needed especially whilst navigating. Whilst sure the ai could do all the required calculations down to a T it lacks one thing that humans have which is experience and also just that human feel for the ship
Jack (Highly likely)
22 Mar 2024 21:25
I think ai will be a heavy problem for humanity because if all humans gonna be replaced by ai people will be lazy and not able to and especially the marine jobs the ocean is heavy and the risk is more
Adam (Low)
06 Jan 2022 14:00
Too much variability. Difficult, dynamic environment requiring human judgement and responsiveness.
D.T. MacTavish
10 Aug 2021 02:49
It won't be fully automated for various reasons, sailors probably won't be fully replaced within the century but automation can make their jobs easier in the meantime.
John
20 Aug 2020 21:25
Sailors need to be replaced by robots, they're all lazy, dumb, and poop all the time. Many sailors are also flat earthers, so I hope those idiots get replaced by robots.
Sailordude
05 Oct 2023 03:20
Ok first being a sailor is a difficult and can sometimes be a labor intensive job. Also I do not understand at all why you say that we are flat earthers that is just weird as there is no reason to think that and also where in the name of hell did you get that idea.
Also the poop thing is just something I would hear from a 1st grader.
Lorenzo Bonanno (Low)
19 May 2020 11:40
Sailor wages are a minimal part of the costs of the shipping industry, while insurance companies will push to maintain workers onboard vessels, especially officers, as they can be held accountable in case of accidents. Another reason is the fact that most work on board ships is maintenance, removing workers from a ship would mean keeping a ship longer in ports for regular maintenance and cleaning of holds, which is not economically viable. Before looking for automation of the jobs, shipping companies will look to ways to reduce their fuel costs, as it is by far the largest continuous expense.
Faisal Ali
29 Apr 2020 23:21
This isn't a career for robots at all. It needs to be done by humans instead. A robot will be destroyed in a battle.
Bjørnar (Low)
08 Mar 2020 10:24
Depending on what kind of boat you work on, but as an anchor handler I don’t think my job will be taken by robots
Hank the Tank
01 Mar 2020 21:44
I am a marine engineer of the watch and my oilers are pretty worthless these days. Can’t run a mop, can’t weld, can’t paint, can’t learn. No interest in learning and advancement in the career, won’t put down the smartphone long enough to take orders. Just give me PTZ cameras and a remote alarm monitoring interface and automate the job away.
David (Low)
23 Feb 2020 13:50
Robots will not be able to handle tasks which require a keen alertness of all of the variables involved with seafaring activities
Kurt R (Low)
04 Jul 2019 20:11
Robots are dumb. The ship I currently work on has miles of wires for all of the supposed automation, and yet things still break and require human hands to fix. Sure this may change in the next 20 years, but my gut tells me humans will still need to be involved to some extent. Either way, I'll be retired by then. Good luck to all of the young aspiring mariners.
Khan
07 Apr 2020 17:56
Ok. Machines can already play chess or fly planes though. Why can't they sail the nth amount of seas?
D.T. MacTavish
10 Aug 2021 02:54
Chess players nor pilots have been replaced. Chess at least is a sport so people want to watch other people play it, not machines (I don't think machine chess would take off on a sports channel) and at least in pilots' cases much of the plane is automated but still requires a human to operate it there are just somethings machines won't be perfect at in the meantime. Sailors will still be around as well, but much of their work might become automated but I don't see a human presence being removed from ships in the next few decades, especially not the officers.
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Job description

Stand watch to look for obstructions in path of vessel, measure water depth, turn wheel on bridge, or use emergency equipment as directed by captain, mate, or pilot. Break out, rig, overhaul, and store cargo-handling gear, stationary rigging, and running gear. Perform a variety of maintenance tasks to preserve the painted surface of the ship and to maintain line and ship equipment. Must hold government-issued certification and tankerman certification when working aboard liquid-carrying vessels. Includes able seamen and ordinary seamen.

O*NET-SOC code: 53-5011.00