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Plant and machine operators, and assemblers · code 8155

Fur and leather preparing machine operators

Fur and leather preparing machine operators monitor and operate various machines that prepare leather or treat fur- or wool-bearing pelts. They trim, scrape, clean, tan, buff and dye animal hides, pelts or skins to produce leather stock and finished furs. Tasks include - (a) operating and monitoring machines which remove flesh and fat from hides or pelts to clean and soften them prior to processing; (b) operating and monitoring machines which remove long coarse hair from fur pelts, trim hair to even length and dye, stretch and smooth dressed pelts; (c) operating and monitoring machines to remove epidermis hair roots, pigment cells and lime salts from the grain side of skin; (d) operating and monitoring machines to reduce thickness of hide or skin to uniform size; (e) operating and monitoring machines to polish or roughen hides or skins to specified finishes; (f) operating and monitoring machines which separate residual wool from skins, or flesh and hair from hides; (g) operating and monitoring machines in which hides are split edgeways to form two or more pieces or to give uniform thickness; (h) operating and monitoring machines which treat hides and skins in solutions to convert them into leather; (i) treating surfaces of leather with oil and operating glazing machines to give glossy finishes to leather; (j) operating and monitoring machines which apply dyes and stains to leather; (k) maintaining and repairing vats and other machinery. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Hide dehairing machine operator - Leather staining machine operator - Tanning machine operator Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Pelt dresser - 7535 - Tanner - 7535

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 72 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • leather production machine operator

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

85.4
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 14.6 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 14.6 = 85.4

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

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 is hands-on work, 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 16.8, while the average is 14.6. 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. 16.8

    Operating and monitoring machines in which hides are split edgeways to form two or more pieces or to give uniform thickness

    Very Low
  2. 16.5

    Operating and monitoring machines which remove flesh and fat from hides or pelts to clean and soften them prior to processing

    Very Low
  3. 16.5

    Operating and monitoring machines which apply dyes and stains to leather

    Very Low
  4. 16.3

    Operating and monitoring machines which separate residual wool from skins, or flesh and hair from hides

    Very Low
  5. 16.1

    Operating and monitoring machines which treat hides and skins in solutions to convert them into leather

    Very Low
  6. 15.8

    Operating and monitoring machines to reduce thickness of hide or skin to uniform size

    Very Low
  7. 15.5

    Operating and monitoring machines to polish or roughen hides or skins to specified finishes

    Very Low
  8. 13.5

    Maintaining and repairing vats and other machinery

    Very Low
  9. 12.3

    Treating surface of leather with oil and operating glazing machine to give glossy finishes to leather

    Very Low
  10. 11

    Operating and monitoring machines which remove long coarse hair from fur pelts, trim hair to even length and dye, stretch and smooth dressed pelts

    Very Low
  11. 10.5

    Operating and monitoring machines to remove epidermis hair roots, pigment cells and lime salts from grain side of skin

    Very Low

11 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
56
AI does it for you
24

Helping wins by 32 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 7117

Compared with similar jobs

There are 39 jobs in the “Plant and machine operators, and assemblers” group, averaging 80. This one is above that.