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Craft and related trades workers · code 7318

Handicraft workers in textile, leather and related materials

Handicraft workers in textile, leather and related materials apply traditional techniques and patterns to produce woven fabrics, knitted, embroidered, woven and other garments and articles for household use, as well as traditional footwear, handbags, belts and other accessories. Tasks include - (a) spinning and dyeing with natural dyestuffs, wool, cotton and other fibres; (b) lace-making, and weaving, knitting or embroidering various garments and articles for household use; (c) preparing and dyeing hides with natural dyestuffs and making traditional footwear or handbags, belts and other accessories; (d) spinning and winding yarn by hand; (e) drawing warp threads into looms by hand; (f) weaving plain or figured cloth, tapestry, lace, carpets or other fabrics on hand looms; (g) making carpets by using a knotting technique; (h) knitting garments and other articles on hand-operated machines or by hand; (i) crocheting or making braid by hand; (j) making nets by hand; (k) grading and classifying natural textile fibres; (l) washing wool fibres; (m) cleaning and fluffing textile fibres; (n) forming fibres into sliver, combing them, combining sliver into sliver laps or forming sliver into rove. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Carpets handicraft worker - Carpet weaver - Cloth weaver - Knitter - Leather handicraft worker - Loom threader - Textile fibre comber - Textile fibre drawer - Textile fibre rover - Textiles handicraft worker - Thread and yarn spinner Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Textile fibre combing machine operator - 8151 - Knitting machine operator - 8152 - Weaving machine operator - 8152

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 51 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • fishing net maker
  • carpet handicraft worker
  • leather goods artisanal worker
  • knitter
  • carpet weaver
  • weaver

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

86.7
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 13.3 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 13.3 = 86.7

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

59.3
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, matched to one US job

36.7
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 44.6 · hand skill 44.6 · cramped spaces 20.8 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on 50+ · fiddly under 39.4 Hands-on, less fiddly work

Less fine handwork and fewer cramped spaces than a typical hands-on job. That clears one hurdle for machines. It doesn't mean machines are doing this work yet.

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 59.3 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 21.3, while the average is 13.3. 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. 21.3

    Grading and classifying natural textile fibres

    Very Low
  2. 15

    Spinning and dyeing with natural dyestuffs, wool, cotton and other fibres

    Very Low
  3. 15

    Preparing and dyeing hides with natural dyestuffs and making traditional footwear or handbags, belts and other accessories

    Very Low
  4. 14.3

    Lace-making and weaving, knitting or embroidering various garments and articles for household use

    Very Low
  5. 14

    Making carpets by using a knotting technique

    Very Low
  6. 13.5

    Weaving plain or figured cloth, tapestry, lace, carpet or other fabrics on hand looms

    Very Low
  7. 13.5

    Knitting garments and other articles on hand-operated machine or by hand

    Very Low
  8. 13.5

    Making nets by hand

    Very Low
  9. 12.5

    Forming fibres into sliver, combing them, combining sliver into sliver laps or forming sliver into rove.

    Very Low
  10. 12

    Spinning and winding yarn by hand

    Very Low
  11. 11.8

    Cleaning and fluffing textile fibres

    Very Low
  12. 11

    Drawing warp threads into loom by hand

    Very Low
  13. 11

    Crocheting or making braid by hand

    Very Low
  14. 8.3

    Washing wool fibres

    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 0.7-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 this one closely, so this is about as reliable as it gets here.

AI helps you
57
AI does it for you
16

Helping wins by 41 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 2114

Compared with similar jobs

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