Skip to content
man bot

Craft and related trades workers · code 7121

Roofers

Roofers build and repair roofs on all types of buildings, using one or more kinds of material. Tasks include - (a) studying drawings, specifications and construction sites to determine materials required; (b) covering roof frameworks with slate and prefabricated tiles to cover pitched roofs; (c) laying a waterproof shield and fixing metallic or synthetic materials to a building’s frame; (d) sizing and cutting roofing materials to fit around edges, corners and protuberances such as chimneys; (e) using natural materials such as thatching to provide roof coverings; (f) creating temporary structures such as scaffolding and ladders. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Asphalt roofer - Metal roofer - Roof fixer - Roof tiler - Slate roofer - Thatcher Note Installers of metal roofing are classified in Unit Group 7121: Roofers. Workers who make sheet metal products for adaptation and installation by roofers are classified in Unit Group 7213: Sheet Metal Workers.

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 39 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • roofer

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

87.4
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 12.6 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 12.6 = 87.4

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

75.3
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, matched to one US job

47.3
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 44.6 · hand skill 48.3 · cramped spaces 49 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on 50+ · caring 4+ of 7 Hands-on, helping and caring for others

Physical work where helping and caring for people is a big part of the job. For care work, whether a machine could do the movements is only half the question. The other half is whether anyone wants one to. The US data counts helping workmates too, so a few trades end up here.

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

This number is probably too high

This score only looks at AI tools like chatbots. It doesn't look at robots at all — and this job rates 75.3 out of 100 for how hands-on it is, which is exactly where robots come in.

Have a look at the tasks below and judge for yourself. The ILO scored them low because a chatbot can't do them. Whether a machine with hands could is a different question, and we can't answer it yet.

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 28, while the average is 12.6. 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. 28

    Studying drawings, specifications and construction sites to determine materials required

    Low
  2. 12

    Laying a waterproof shield and fixing metallic or synthetic materials to a building’s frame

    Very Low
  3. 10.8

    Sizing and cutting roofing materials to fit around edges, corners and protuberances such as chimneys

    Very Low
  4. 9

    Creating temporary structures such as scaffolding and ladders.

    Very Low
  5. 8.3

    Using natural materials such as thatching to provide roof coverings

    Very Low
  6. 7.8

    Covering roof frameworks with slate and pre-fabricated tiles to cover pitched roofs

    Very Low

6 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
51.5
AI does it for you
14

Helping wins by 37.5 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 3333, 3341

Compared with similar jobs

There are 65 jobs in the “Craft and related trades workers” group, averaging 83.4. This one is above that.