Textile Cutting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders

Imminent Risk
Low High

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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
1.0/10
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

81% (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.

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

What users think

Based on 19 votes

64% 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 81% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Textile Cutting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders 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 Textile Cutting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders was $37,940 ($18 per hour).

The median annual wage for Textile Cutting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders was 23.4% 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 'Textile Cutting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders' job openings is expected to decline 11.7% 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 8,960 people employed as 'Textile Cutting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders' within the United States.

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

Put another way, around 1 in 17 thousand people are employed as 'Textile Cutting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders'.

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What people are saying (2)

Joydeep Sharma (Highly likely)
06 Jan 2022 08:23
High risk of automation in the textile industry

I am a textile engineer in Bangladesh, and I have been working in the textile industry on the industrial floors for the past two years. I have noticed that when small garment/textile companies start, they usually rely on human labor for production. However, as the industry grows, the factory struggles to keep up with demand. To deal with the vast orders, cheap labor is often replaced by automatic machines. These machines can increase production by 40-70%, depending on the type of machine.

Unfortunately, this means that operators, technicians, cutting machine setters, and machine readers are eventually laid off. Better software and cloud-based information can be readily brought in, saving more time and driving down production costs. The laborers seek out other jobs, and the company, in competition to keep up with the market, hires workers for even lower wages. Therefore, textile factory personnel are at higher risk in the long run.
Mapo'a
08 Apr 2021 17:41
Hasn't the job been automated?

Leave a reply about this occupation
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Job description

Set up, operate, or tend machines that cut textiles.

O*NET-SOC code: 51-6062.00