Craft and related trades workers · code 7112
Bricklayers and related workers
AI can price the job. It can't lay a straight course of bricks in the wind.
AI barely touches any of the three tasks: laying brick and stone walls, building patios and garden walls, and laying paths and kerbs. No app has ever pointed a wall.
What they actually do (and what else they get called)
Bricklayers and related workers lay bricks, pre-cut stones and other types of building blocks in mortar to construct and repair walls, partitions, arches and other structures. Tasks include - (a) laying stone, brick and similar building blocks to construct or repair walls, partitions, fireplaces and other structures such as smokestacks, furnaces, converters, kilns and ovens, piers and abutments; (b) laying footpaths, kerbs and pavements; (c) laying bricks or other masonry to build patios, garden walls and other decorative installations. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Block layer - Bricklayer - Chimney builder - Refractory bricklayer Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Stonemason - 7113
- bricklayer
Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.
91 / 100
Strongly holds up against AI
Most of this job still needs an actual human. AI would mostly be making the tea.
Not the odds you keep your job. It's how much of the everyday work still needs a person, out of 100.
The ILO's official verdict: Not Exposed
1 of 427 for holding up against AI
Not quite your week? Make it yours ↓
Why this score?
The ILO rated each of this job's 3 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 8.9 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 8.9 = 91.1.
That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Not Exposed”: None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count.
from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use
Pinch of salt: this number is probably too rosy
It only asks what AI software could do, and this job is 69 out of 100 hands-on. A chatbot can't do that part. A robot might, one day, and nobody measures how close that is.
Man v Bot · compare
Who holds up better?
Bricklayers and related workers 91
vGo on, try your partner's job. Or your sibling's. We won't tell.
Man v Bot
Where the bot helps, and where the human wins
Bot
What AI takes
The routine stuff. You may not miss it.
- Quoting, estimating materials and ordering deliveries.
- Scheduling and site paperwork.
- Checking measurements against the drawings.
Man
What people still do better
Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.
- Laying level, true courses on uneven ground, in any weather.
- Repair and heritage work where no two walls are the same.
- Judging mortar, bricks and conditions by eye and feel.
Both
What's arriving
New work that only exists because the AI does.
- Working alongside bricklaying machines on large, repetitive builds.
- Retrofit and insulation work on older buildings.
- Reading digital site plans and 3D models on a tablet.
Written by a human, from the ILO's task ratings below. Yes, we see the irony. Read it as one person's take.
Meet your two rivals
They're not the same machine. AI software can only reach the parts of a job done on a screen or in words. A chatbot can't climb a ladder. A robot might, one day, if it doesn't fall off.
The AI
Lives in a screen. Never had to fix a boiler.
Threat level: Low
17 could do without you
It could take over very little of the work on its own. It could help with 49 of 100.
The robot
The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.
How much it matters here: Higher
69 how hands-on
Most of this job needs hands, a body or turning up. That's robot territory, and nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to give you a number. We won't make one up.
So could a robot do the physical part?
More fine handwork, and more time in cramped or awkward spots, than a typical hands-on job. That is exactly what machines find hardest: they do best in tidy, predictable places.
Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 50 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.
hands-on
and cramped
Kind of hands-on work Hands-on, fiddly work in tight spaces
The small print
They aren't a robot score, and nothing on this page is. Nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to put a number on it. These are the closest thing we have: how hands-on the job is, and how much fiddly, cramped work it takes, which is what Frey and Osborne found hardest for machines.
From O*NET, averaged across 2 US jobs .
finger skill 43.8 · hand skill 46.4 · cramped spaces 60.3 · averaged · rule: hands-on 50+ · fiddly 39.4+
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 0.8-observed-use measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement
The job, task by task
Every job is really a bundle of tasks. Here's this one unpacked, with how much of each AI could do, out of 100. The score is the average, and averages can hide a lot.
AI's favourite task here scores 10, against an average of 9. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.
- 10
Laying stone, brick and similar building blocks to construct or repair walls, partitions, fireplaces and other structures such as smokestacks, furnaces, converters, kilns and ovens, piers and abutments
Very Low - 8
Laying bricks or other masonry to build patios, garden walls and other decorative installations.
Very Low - 8
Laying footpaths, kerbs and pavements
Very Low
3 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's
from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use
New · the weekly task audit
Your week, your score
The score above assumes bricklayers spend the same time on every task. You don't. Slide each task to how much of your week it takes, and we'll re-weight the same ILO ratings to fit your job.
- Some
- Some
- Some
Your score
91 / 100
Same as the job as a whole, so far.
Move the sliders to make it yours.
The job as a whole: 91 / 100
Link copied.
Nothing you enter leaves your browser. The link just carries your slider positions.
Sidekick or replacement?
A tool that makes you faster is a very different thing from one that does the task while you watch. Jobs and Skills Australia measured the two separately, which is handy.
- AI helps you
- 49
- AI does it for you
- 17
Sidekick wins, by 32 points.
How good a match is this?
One Australian job matches this one closely, so this is about as reliable as it gets here.
estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 3311
Meanwhile, in real life…
Everything else here is about what AI could do. This is what people actually did. When they asked Claude for help with this kind of work, did they hand the whole task over, or roll their sleeves up and work through it together?
Tiny sample alert This job makes up under 0.01% of all the conversations: a tiny slice, mostly the paperwork rather than the work. People using AI for a job isn't the same as AI being able to do it.
Out of every 100 conversations
worked through it together handed it over
The small print
Anthropic publishes this about its own product, and it doesn't feed into any score here. These are people who use Claude, not workers in general, so little use here doesn't mean AI can't reach the job.
These two add up to 100. The bars elsewhere on the page don't, because each is scored on its own, so we don't put them side by side.
observed use Anthropic Economic Index release 2026-06-26, period beginning 2026-05-01 data 0.8-observed-use 2026-05-01 · Anthropic, about its own product
So, should bricklayers be worried?
Short answer: not really. Put the kettle on.
No. Every task the ILO lists for bricklayers rates Very Low: this is heavy, precise work on site. AI helps around the edges, with quotes, material estimates and scheduling. Bricklaying machines are being trialled on some large sites, but they need a flat, prepared job and people to run them.
Worth remembering: we score tasks, not jobs. When AI takes on a task, the job usually reshuffles around it rather than vanishing.
Where this job could lead
None of the new jobs we've written up start from here yet. Could be you're the first. See the jobs AI is creating →
How are the neighbours doing?
There are 65 jobs in the “Craft and related trades workers” family, averaging 83. This one is above the family average.
- Building structure cleaners 91
- Building frame and related trades wor… 91
- Floor layers and tile setters 90
- Concrete placers, concrete finishers … 90
- Stonemasons, stone cutters, splitters… 89
- Pelt dressers, tanners and fellmongers 89
- Structural-metal preparers and erecto… 89
- Plasterers 89
- Spray painters and varnishers 88
- Shotfirers and blasters 88
- Sewing, embroidery and related workers 88
- Butchers, fishmongers and related foo… 88
- Roofers 87
- Painters and related workers 87
- Riggers and cable splicers 87
- Insulation workers 87
- Carpenters and joiners 87
- Welders and flamecutters 87
- Bicycle and related repairers 87
- Handicraft workers in textile, leathe… 87
- Fumigators and other pest and weed co… 87
- Metal moulders and coremakers 87
- Handicraft workers in wood, basketry … 86
- House builders 86
- Glaziers 86
- Musical instrument makers and tuners 86
- Tobacco preparers and tobacco product… 86
- Craft and related workers not elsewhe… 86