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Craft and related trades workers · code 7126

Plumbers and pipe fitters

Plumbers and pipe fitters assemble, install, repair and maintain pipe systems, drains, gutters, ducts and related fittings and fixtures for water, gas, drainage, sewerage, heating, cooling and ventilation systems, and for hydraulic and pneumatic equipment. Tasks include - (a) examining blueprints, drawings and specifications to determine the layout of plumbing and ventilation systems and materials required; (b) measuring, cutting, threading, bending, jointing, assembling, installing, maintaining and repairing pipes, fittings and fixtures of drainage, heating, ventilation, water supply and sewerage systems; (c) installing gas appliances, dishwashers and water heaters, sinks and toilets using hand and power tools; (d) laying clay, concrete or cast-iron pipes in ditches to form sewers, drains or water mains, or for other purposes; (e) inspecting, examining and testing installed systems and pipes, using pressure gauge, hydrostatic testing, observation or other methods. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Drain technician - Gas fitter - Pipe fitter - Pipe layer - Plumber - Ventilation pipe fitter Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Air conditioning and refrigeration mechanics - 7127 Notes Installers of metal drains, gutters and ducts are classified in Unit Group 7126: Plumbers and Pipe Fitters. Workers who make sheet metal products for adaptation and installation plumbers are classified in Unit Group 7213: Sheet Metal Workers.

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 77 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • pipeline maintenance worker
  • water conservation technician
  • plumber
  • irrigation system installer
  • irrigation technician
  • drain technician
  • water network operative
  • sewerage network operative
  • sprinkler fitter
  • gas service technician
  • bathroom fitter
  • heating engineer
  • sewer construction worker
  • septic tank servicer

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

84.8
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 15.2 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 15.2 = 84.8

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

65.9
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 3 US jobs

50
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 43.8 · hand skill 43.8 · cramped spaces 62.5 · 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 65.9 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 25, while the average is 15.2. 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. 25

    Examining blueprints, drawings and specifications to determine the layout of plumbing and ventilation systems and materials required

    Low
  2. 21.3

    Inspecting, examining and testing installed systems and pipes, using pressure gauge, hydrostatic testing, observation or other methods.

    Very Low
  3. 10.3

    Measuring, cutting, threading, bending, jointing, assembling, installing, maintaining and repairing pipes, fittings and fixtures of drainage, heating, ventilation, water supply and sewerage systems

    Very Low
  4. 9.8

    Installing gas appliances, dishwashers and water heaters, sinks and toilets using hand and power tools

    Very Low
  5. 9.5

    Laying clay, concrete or cast-iron pipes in ditches to form sewers, drains or water mains, or for other purposes

    Very Low

5 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
59
AI does it for you
15

Helping wins by 44 points.

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

Compared with similar jobs

There are 65 jobs in the “Craft and related trades workers” group, averaging 83.5. This one is above that.

A closer look

There's a written profile for this job, with notes on what changes and what stays human.