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Craft and related trades workers · code 7316

Sign writers, decorative painters, engravers and etchers

AI can generate the design. Painting the sign by hand is still a craft.

Composing the visual elements is mostly out of AI's reach. It barely touches the other thirteen tasks, including designing lettering, applying transfers and cutting out signs.

What they actually do (and what else they get called)

Signwriters, decorative painters, engravers and etchers decorate articles made of wood, metal, textiles, glass, ceramics and other materials. They plan, lay out and paint letters, figures, monograms and designs to make signs and engrave and etch ornamental and floral designs on glass and other articles. Tasks include - (a) painting decorative freehand designs on objects such as pottery, glass, cigarette cases or lampshades; (b) transferring decorative or ornamental designs onto articles from paper transfers; (c) integrating and developing visual elements, such as line, space, mass, colour and perspective, in order to produce desired effects such as the illustration of ideas, emotions or moods; (d) laying out and painting in one or more languages letters, figures, monograms and designs to make signs; (e) sketching or tracing designs or lettering onto work pieces or pattern materials to prepare patterns or stencils; (f) designing patterns or lettering to paint work pieces such as signs, glassware, pottery or zinc plates; (g) using software and routing equipment to produce three-dimensional carved images for application onto larger signage as well as engraved and inlaid signs; (h) designing and producing normal flat cut lettering, or lettering that is shadowed with applied vinyl, or lettering that is ready cut for application; (i) writing, painting or printing signs or show cards used for display or other purposes; (j) cutting out letters and signs for display purposes from wallboard or cardboard, by hand or machines such as electrically powered jigsaws or bandsaws; (k) examining sketches, diagrams, samples, blueprints or photographs to decide how designs are to be etched, cut or engraved onto work pieces; (l) measuring and computing dimensions of lettering, designs or patterns to be engraved; (m) engraving and printing patterns, ornamental designs, etchings, trademarks, figures or lettering onto flat or curved surfaces of a wide variety of metal, glass, plastic, or ceramic items; (n) etching decorative designs, calibration markings and other figures on glass articles. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Decorative painter - Glass enameller - Glass engraver - Glass etcher - Signwriter Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Building painter - 7 131 - Manufactured articles painter - 7132 - Vehicle painter - 7132 - Ceramics painting machine operator - 8181 - Glass painting machine operator - 8181

  • sign maker
  • metal engraver
  • decorative painter
  • glass engraver

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

82 / 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.

← Robot's turf Human's turf →

The ILO's official verdict: Not Exposed

126 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 14 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 18.4 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 18.4 = 81.6.

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.

This job rates 49.9 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Man v Bot · compare

Who holds up better?

Sign writers, decorative painters, engravers and etchers 82

v

Go 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.

  • Generating layouts and design options.
  • Machine-cut vinyl and routed letters.
  • Quotes and approvals.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Hand-painted lettering and decoration.
  • Engraving and etching by hand.
  • Installing signs on site.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • Laser engraving and digital routing.
  • Traditional hand-painted signs as a premium craft.
  • Personalised products sold online.

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

32 could do without you

It could take over very little of the work on its own. It could help with 60 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Some

50 how hands-on

A fair part of this job is hands-on, so robots would be needed for that part, not just software.

So could a robot do the physical part?

Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.

Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 40 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

50 How
hands-on
40 How fiddly
and cramped

Kind of hands-on work Less than half hands-on

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 47.3 · hand skill 44.7 · cramped spaces 28.4 · averaged · rule: hands-on under 50

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 47, against an average of 18. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 47

    Integrating and developing visual elements, such as line, space, mass, colour, and perspective, in order to produce desired effects such as the illustration of ideas, emotions or moods

    Low
  2. 21

    Designing pattern or lettering to paint work pieces such as signs, glassware, pottery or zinc plates

    Very Low
  3. 19

    Laying out and painting in one or more languages letters, figures, monograms and designs to make signs

    Very Low
  4. 19

    Writing, painting or printing signs or show cards used for display or other purposes

    Very Low
  5. 19

    Designing and producing normal flat cut lettering, or lettering that is shadowed with applied vinyl or lettering that is ready cut for application

    Very Low
  6. 17

    Etching decorative designs, calibration markings and other figures on glass articles.

    Very Low
  7. 16

    Using software and routing equipment to produce three-dimensional Carved images for application onto larger signage as well as engraved and inlaid signs

    Very Low
  8. 16

    Examining sketches, diagrams, samples, blueprints, or photographs to decide how designs are to be etched, cut or engraved onto work pieces

    Very Low
  9. 15

    Measuring and computing dimensions of lettering, designs, or patterns to be engraved

    Very Low
  10. 15

    Sketching or tracing design or lettering onto work piece or pattern material to prepare pattern or stencil

    Very Low
  11. 14

    Painting decorative freehand designs on objects, such as pottery, glass, cigarette cases, lampshades

    Very Low
  12. 14

    Engraving and printing patterns, ornamental designs, etchings, trademarks, figures or lettering onto flat or curved surfaces of a wide variety of metal, glass, plastic, or ceramic items

    Very Low
  13. 14

    Transferring from paper transfers decorative or ornamental designs on articles

    Very Low
  14. 12

    Cutting out letters and signs for display purposes from wallboard or cardboard, by hand or machines such as electrically powered jigsaw or bandsaw

    Very Low

14 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

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
60
AI does it for you
32

Sidekick wins, by 28 points.

How good a match is this?

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

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 3233, 3996

So, should sign makers and engravers be worried?

Short answer: not really. Put the kettle on.

Somewhat. Composing visual elements is the most exposed task, rated Low; lettering, painting, engraving and etching rate Very Low. AI image tools make design faster, which puts more value on hand-painted, crafted and installed work.

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 84. This one is below the family average.

Pit this against any other job →