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Service and sales workers · code 5246

Food service counter attendants

Food service counter attendants serve customers at food counters and finish preparation of simple food items in restaurants, cafés, hotels, fast food outlets, cafeterias, hospitals and other settings. Tasks include - (a) serving food to customers at counters; (b) ascertaining the products desired by customers, assisting them in making choices and taking orders; (c) cleaning, peeling, slicing and trimming foodstuffs, using manual and electric appliances; (d) preparing simple food items and reheating prepared meals; (e) portioning and wrapping food or placing it directly on plates for service to patrons; (f) packaging takeaway food; (g) stocking refrigerators, salad and buffet bars and keeping records of the quantities of food used; (h) receiving payment for food items purchased. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Cafeteria counter attendant - Salad bar attendant Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Cook - 5120 - Waiter - 5131 - Bartender - 5132 - Kiosk salesperson - 5211 - Market salesperson - 5211 - Street stall salesperson - 5211 - Fast food preparer - 9411 Notes Vendors from street and market stalls of fresh food products not intended for immediate consumption (such as fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy products) are classified in Unit Group 5211: Stall and Market Salespersons. Vendors from street and market stalls of a variety of prepared meals and food items for immediate consumption are classified in Unit Group 5246: Food Service Counter Attendants. Vendors in streets and public places of food and beverages for immediate consumption from pushcarts, trucks, trays or baskets are classified in Unit Group 5212: Street Food Salespersons. Vendors in streets and public places of non-food items (or of pre-packaged non-perishable food items such as confectionery) from pushcarts, trucks, trays or baskets are classified in Unit Group 9520: Street Vendors (excluding Food). Workers who prepare simple food items for immediate consumption, such as hamburger cooks, but have limited direct contact with clients, are classified in Unit Group 9411: Fast Food Preparers. If adapting these categories to national circumstances please note that the aim of separately identifying vendors of food items for immediate consumption is to ensure that jobs that require skills in service, basic preparation and hygienic handling of food are identified. Food service counter attendants generally serve a wider range of more elaborate products and meals than street food salespersons and do not generally transport food using, or sell food from, equipment such as handcarts, bicycles or baskets.

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 185 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • quick service restaurant team leader
  • airline food service worker

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

76.2
Holds up
against AI
Not Exposed

AI could take on 23.8 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 23.8 = 76.2

That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.

35.2
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 3 US jobs

32.8
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 35.7 · hand skill 38.7 · cramped spaces 24.1 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on under 50 Less than half hands-on

Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

What this number leaves out This job rates 35.2 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.

The tasks behind the score

The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.

The task AI could do most of scores 46, while the average is 23.8. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.

  1. 46

    Ascertaining the products desired by the customer, assisting them in making choices and taking orders

    Low
  2. 41.5

    Receiving payment for food items purchased.

    Low
  3. 29

    Serving food to customers at counters

    Low
  4. 16.5

    Packaging takeaway food

    Very Low
  5. 16.5

    Stocking refrigerators, salad, buffet bars and keeping records of the quantities of food used

    Very Low
  6. 14

    Portioning and wrapping food or placing it directly on plates for service to patrons

    Very Low
  7. 13.5

    Cleaning, peeling, slicing and trimming foodstuffs using manual and electric appliances

    Very Low
  8. 13.5

    Preparing simple food items and reheating prepared meals

    Very Low

8 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.7-work-setting

Helped, or replaced?

The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.

2 Australian jobs match this one, and we've simply averaged them. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

AI helps you
54.5
AI does it for you
32.5

Helping wins by 22 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 4312, 6211

Compared with similar jobs

There are 39 jobs in the “Service and sales workers” group, averaging 74.4. This one is above that.