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Craft and related trades workers · code 7212

Welders and flamecutters

Welders and flame cutters weld and cut metal parts using gas flame, electric arc and other sources of heat to melt and cut, or to melt and fuse metal. Tasks include - (a) welding metal parts using gas flame, or an electric arc, thermite compound or other methods; (b) operating resistance-welding machines; (c) using blowtorches to make and repair lead linings, pipes, floors and other lead fixtures; (d) brazing metal parts together; (e) cutting metal pieces using gas flame or an electric arc; (f) joining metal parts by hand soldering; (g) monitoring the fitting, burning and welding processes to avoid overheating of parts or warping, shrinking, distortion or expansion of material; (h) examining work pieces for defects and measuring work pieces with straight edges or templates to ensure conformity with specifications. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Brazier - Flame cutter - Welder

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 46 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • welding coordinator
  • brazier
  • solderer
  • welder

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

87
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 13 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 13 = 87

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

59.8
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 2 US jobs

43.4
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 43.8 · hand skill 42.9 · cramped spaces 43.5 · 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 59.8 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 24, while the average is 13. 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. 24

    Monitoring the fitting, burning, and welding processes to avoid overheating of parts or warping, shrinking, distortion or expansion of material

    Very Low
  2. 15.8

    Examining work pieces for defects and measuring work pieces with straight edges or templates to ensure conformance with specifications.

    Very Low
  3. 13

    Operating resistance-welding machines

    Very Low
  4. 12.3

    Brazing metal parts together

    Very Low
  5. 11.5

    Joining metal parts by hand soldering

    Very Low
  6. 9.8

    Cutting metal pieces using gas flame or an electric arc

    Very Low
  7. 9

    Welding metal parts using gas flame, or an electric arc, thermite compound or other methods

    Very Low
  8. 9

    Using blowtorch to make and repair lead linings, pipes, floors and other lead fixtures

    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.

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

AI helps you
61
AI does it for you
24.3

Helping wins by 36.7 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 3223, 3232, 7123

Compared with similar jobs

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