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Plant and machine operators, and assemblers · code 8142

Plastic products machine operators

Plastic products machine operators monitor and operate machines which knead and blend compounds to obtain plastic materials and which make various plastic components and articles. Tasks include - (a) operating and monitoring machines which knead and blend compounds to obtain plastic materials; (b) operating and monitoring machines which shape plastic materials by moulding, extrusion, blowing, cutting and other means; (c) operating and monitoring machines which laminate plastics and plastic-impregnated materials or produce fibreglass; (d) encasing uncoated wire, cord, cable and optic fibre in plastic; (e) examining outputs for defects and conformity to specifications; (f) recycling waste plastic materials; (g) making artificial eyes and contact lens discs, making and repairing spectacle frames and plastic parts of orthopaedic appliances. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Laminated press operator (plastics) - Optic fibre drawer - Plastic cable making machine operator - Plastic extrusion machine operator - Plastic moulder - Plastics boat builder - Plastics bottle blowing machine operator - Plastics products machine operator

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 105 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • fiberglass laminator
  • plastic rolling machine operator
  • fibreglass machine operator
  • plastic furniture machine operator
  • record press operator
  • pultrusion machine operator
  • injection moulding operator
  • plastic heat treatment equipment operator
  • filament winding operator
  • cake press operator
  • blow moulding machine operator
  • vacuum forming machine operator
  • compression moulding machine operator
  • insulating tube winder

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

82.5
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 17.5 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 17.5 = 82.5

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

67.7
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 12 US jobs , so treat it as rough

41.2
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 44.3 · hand skill 44.5 · cramped spaces 34.8 · 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 67.7 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 28.5, while the average is 17.5. 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. 28.5

    Examining outputs for defects and conformity to specifications

    Low
  2. 18.5

    Operating and monitoring machines which laminate plastics and plastic-impregnated materials or produce fibreglass

    Very Low
  3. 17

    Operating and monitoring machines which knead and blend compounds to obtain plastic materials

    Very Low
  4. 16.5

    Operating and monitoring machines which shape plastic materials by moulding, extrusion, blowing, cutting and other means

    Very Low
  5. 15

    Recycling waste plastic materials

    Very Low
  6. 14

    Making artificial eyes and contact lens discs, making and repairing spectacle frames and plastic parts of orthopaedic appliances.

    Very Low
  7. 13

    Encasing uncoated wire, cord, cable and optic fibre in plastic

    Very Low

7 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
59
AI does it for you
24

Helping wins by 35 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 3991, 7115

Compared with similar jobs

There are 39 jobs in the “Plant and machine operators, and assemblers” group, averaging 80.1. This one is above that.