Sewers, Hand

Highest risk Lowest scored Low pay & highrisk
Imminent Risk
Low High

Explore safer careers (5)

Lower estimated automation risk

Tailors, Dressmakers, and Custom Sewers
57% automation risk | Moderate Risk
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Why it fits

Direct move using hand sewing, alterations, fitting, fabric handling, seams, trimming, and customer measurements.

Costume Attendants
48% automation risk | Moderate Risk
Pays better Higher growth
40.7 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Uses alterations, garment care, fitting, repairs, wardrobe tracking, and work under performance deadlines.

Fabric and Apparel Patternmakers
53% automation risk | Moderate Risk
Pays better More jobs
35.8 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Reuses measuring, pattern use, garment construction, material behavior, and specifications with patternmaking or CAD training.

Upholsterers
57% automation risk | Moderate Risk
Pays better Higher growth
31.2 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Applies sewing, cutting, fitting fabric, repair, hand tools, and knowledge of coverings and fasteners.

Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers
74% automation risk | High Risk
Pays better Higher growth
14.6 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Fits workers who can inspect sewn goods, spot defects, follow specifications, sort products, and document quality issues.

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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
0.9/10
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

89% (Imminent Risk)

Imminent Risk (81-100%): This occupation appears highly exposed to end-to-end replacement by AI, software, robotics, or other computer-controlled systems. Roles in this range often involve predictable, repeatable, or rules-based work with limited need for human judgement, trust, creativity, or adaptation to messy real-world conditions. This does not mean every job will disappear immediately, but it is a strong signal to consider safer alternatives or start building more resilient skills.

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

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

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.
Jobs that also use this strength

What users think

Based on 79 votes

73% 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 89% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Sewers, Hand will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

View sentiment trend

Pay & outlook

Wages

Very low paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Sewers, Hand was $33,760 ($16 per hour).

The median annual wage for Sewers, Hand was 31.8% 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

Very slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Sewers, Hand' job openings is expected to decline 7.0% 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 lower range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 2,240 people employed as 'Sewers, Hand' within the United States.

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

Put another way, around 1 in 68 thousand people are employed as 'Sewers, Hand'.

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What people are saying (4)

Antti (Uncertain)
16 Dec 2022 07:32
For basic t-shirts, yes this has happened. But for more complex sewing work humans still have their place.
Anonymous (Highly likely)
23 Dec 2020 03:05
This was replaced a long time ago - before the threat of computer automation was commonplace.
Firat Tuna
06 Sep 2019 10:54
This has already been replaced a long time ago :D
DAM
05 Nov 2019 14:34
I agree XDD
Leave a reply about this occupation
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Job description

Sew, join, reinforce, or finish, usually with needle and thread, a variety of manufactured items. Includes weavers and stitchers.

O*NET-SOC code: 51-6051.00