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Craft and related trades workers · code 7123

Plasterers

Plasterers install, maintain and repair plasterboard in buildings, and apply decorative and protective coverings of plaster, cement and similar material to the interiors and exteriors of structures. Tasks include - (a) applying one or more coats of plaster to interior walls and ceilings of buildings to produce a finished surface; (b) measuring, marking and installing ornamental plaster panels, and casting and trimming ornamental plaster cornices; (c) measuring, marking and cutting plasterboard, lifting and positioning panels and securing them to walls, ceilings and battens; (d) covering joins and nail holes with wet plaster and sealing compounds, and smoothing them using wet brushes and sandpaper; (e) applying protective and decorative coverings of cement, plaster and similar materials to exterior building surfaces; (f) making and installing decorative plaster fixtures of fibrous plaster; (g) applying and finishing acoustic, insulating and fireproofing materials bonded with plaster, plastic cement and similar materials. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Dry wall plasterer - Fibrous plasterer - Ornamental plasterer - Plasterer - Solid plasterer - Stucco plasterer

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 24 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • plasterer
  • ceiling installer

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

88.6
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 11.4 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 11.4 = 88.6

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

62
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 3 US jobs

45.4
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 42.9 · hand skill 47.6 · cramped spaces 45.8 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on 50+ · fiddly 39.4+ Hands-on, fiddly work in tight spaces

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.

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 62 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 13.5, while the average is 11.4. 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. 13.5

    Measuring, marking and installing ornamental plaster panels, and casting and trimming ornamental plaster cornices

    Very Low
  2. 12.8

    Applying and finishing acoustic, insulating and fireproofing materials bonded with plaster, plastic cement and similar materials.

    Very Low
  3. 12

    Making and installing decorative plaster fixtures of fibrous plaster

    Very Low
  4. 10.8

    Applying protective and decorative covering of cement, plaster and similar materials to exterior building surfaces

    Very Low
  5. 10.5

    Applying one or more coats of plaster to interior walls and ceilings of buildings to produce finished surface

    Very Low
  6. 10.3

    Measuring, marking and cutting plasterboard, lifting and positioning panels and securing them to walls, ceilings and battens

    Very Low
  7. 10.3

    Covering joins and nail holes with wet plaster and sealing compounds, and smoothing them using wet brushes and sand paper

    Very Low

7 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.

One Australian job matches, but only partly: not everyone in it does this job. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

AI helps you
44
AI does it for you
12

Helping wins by 32 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 3332

Compared with similar jobs

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