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Craft and related trades workers · code 7522

Cabinet-makers and related workers

Cabinet-makers and related workers make, decorate and repair wooden furniture, carts and other vehicles, wheels, parts, fittings, patterns, models and other wooden products using woodworking machines, machine tools and specialized hand tools. Tasks include - (a) operating woodworking machines such as power saws, jointers, mortisers and shapers, and using hand tools to cut, shape and form parts and components; (b) studying plans, verifying dimensions of articles to be made, or preparing specifications and checking the quality and fit of pieces in order to ensure adherence to specifications; (c) trimming joints and fitting parts and subassemblies together to form complete units using glue and clamps, and reinforcing joints using nails, screws or other fasteners; (d) making, restyling and repairing various wooden articles such as cabinets, furniture, vehicles, scale models, sports equipment and other parts or products; (e) decorating furniture and fixtures by inlaying wood or applying veneer and carving designs; (f) finishing surfaces of wooden articles or furniture. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Cabinet-maker - Cartwright - Furniture cabinet-maker - Wheelwright - Wood patternmaker Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Carpenters and joiners - 7115 - Wood and related products assemblers - 8219

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 84 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • furniture finisher
  • frame maker
  • cabinet maker
  • furniture restorer
  • antique furniture reproducer
  • cooper
  • recreation model maker

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

83.8
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 16.2 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 16.2 = 83.8

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

66.6
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 4 US jobs

41.4
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 51.8 · hand skill 53.1 · cramped spaces 19.2 · 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 66.6 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 28.8, while the average is 16.2. 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. 28.8

    Studying plans, verifying dimensions of articles to be made, or preparing specifications and checking the quality and fit of pieces in order to ensure adherence to specifications

    Low
  2. 15.1

    Making, restyling and repairing various wooden articles, such as cabinets, furniture, vehicles, scale models, sports equipment and other parts or products

    Very Low
  3. 14.8

    Decorating furniture and fixtures by inlaying wood, applying veneer and carving designs

    Very Low
  4. 14.5

    Trimming joints and fitting parts and subassemblies together to form complete units using glue and clamps, and reinforcing joints using nails, screws or other fasteners

    Very Low
  5. 13.8

    Operating woodworking machines, such as power saws, jointers, mortisers and shapers, and using hand tools to cut, shape and form parts and components

    Very Low
  6. 10.5

    Finishing surfaces of wooden articles or furniture.

    Very Low

6 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.

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

AI helps you
60.5
AI does it for you
24.5

Helping wins by 36 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 3941, 3942

Compared with similar jobs

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