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Craft and related trades workers · code 7541

Underwater divers

Underwater divers work under the surface of water, with or without the aid of underwater breathing apparatus, to inspect, install, repair and remove equipment and structures, conduct tests or experiments, rig explosives, photograph structures or marine life, collect various forms of aquatic life for commercial or research purposes, and find and recover missing items and persons. Tasks include - (a) taking safety precautions, such as monitoring dive lengths and depths, and registering with authorities before diving expeditions begin; (b) checking and maintaining diving equipment such as helmets, masks, air tanks, diving suits, harnesses and gauges; (c) descending into water with the aid of diver helpers, using scuba gear or diving suits; (d) working under water to lay and repair bridges, piers and harbour-wall foundations; (e) inspecting for suspected damage and making minor repairs to ships’ hulls and underwater installations; (f) reporting on the condition of wrecked ships; (g) removing underwater obstructions; (h) drilling holes for underwater blasting; (i) performing various underwater tasks connected with salvage work or recovering dead bodies; (j) gathering shellfish, sponges and other aquatic life forms; (j) communicating with workers on the surface while under water, using signal lines or telephones; (k) obtaining information about diving tasks and environmental conditions. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Oyster diver - Salvage frogman - Sponge diver - Underwater worker Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Subsistence diver - 6340

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 81 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • rescue diver
  • harvest diver
  • construction commercial diver

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

84.4
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 15.6 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 15.6 = 84.4

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

79.8
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, matched to one US job

55.5
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 50 · hand skill 44.6 · cramped spaces 71.8 · 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 79.8 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 36, while the average is 15.6. 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. 36

    Obtaining information about diving tasks and environmental conditions.

    Low
  2. 27

    Reporting on condition of wrecked ships

    Low
  3. 23.3

    Communicating with workers on the surface while under water, using signal lines or telephones

    Very Low
  4. 18.9

    Taking safety precautions, such as monitoring dive lengths and depths, and registering with authorities before diving expeditions begin

    Very Low
  5. 14.8

    Checking and maintaining diving equipment such as helmets, masks, air tanks, diving suits, harnesses and gauges

    Very Low
  6. 12.3

    Working under water to lay and repair bridges, piers and harbour-wall foundations

    Very Low
  7. 11.3

    Drilling holes for underwater blasting

    Very Low
  8. 10.3

    Inspecting for suspected damage and making minor repairs to ships' hulls and underwater installations

    Very Low
  9. 10

    Performing various underwater tasks connected with salvage work or recovering dead bodies

    Very Low
  10. 9.5

    Descending into water with the aid of diver helpers, using scuba gear or diving suits

    Very Low
  11. 7.5

    Removing underwater obstructions

    Very Low
  12. 7

    Gathering shellfish, sponges and other aquatic life forms

    Very Low

12 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
61
AI does it for you
30

Helping wins by 31 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 3999

Compared with similar jobs

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