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Plant and machine operators, and assemblers · code 8212

Electrical and electronic equipment assemblers

Electrical and electronic equipment assemblers assemble or modify, according to procedures strictly laid down, components of electrical, electromechanical and electronic equipment. Tasks include - (a) assembling component parts and electrical and electronic systems and positioning, aligning and fastening units to assemblies, subassemblies or frames using hand or power tools, soldering and micro-welding equipment.; (b) reviewing work orders, specifications, diagrams and drawings to determine materials needed and assembly instructions; (c) recording production and operational data on specified forms; (d) operating wire-coiling machines to wind wire coils used in electrical equipment and components such as registers, transformers, armature wires, electric motors and generators; (e) inspecting and testing completed components and assemblies, wiring installations and circuits, and rejecting faulty assembly components. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Armature assembler - Electrical equipment assembler - Electromechanical equipment assembler - Electronic equipment assembler - Etcher (printed circuit board) - Telephone assembler - Television assembler - Watch assembler Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Precision-instrument maker - 7311 - Electronics mechanics and servicer - 7421

A few tasks are affected, but the heart of the job isn't. It ranks 221 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • surface-mount technology machine operator
  • electronic equipment assembler
  • electrical equipment assembler
  • wave soldering machine operator
  • dental instrument assembler

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

72.3
Holds up
against AI Minimal Exposure

AI could take on 27.7 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 27.7 = 72.3

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

56.3
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 5 US jobs

42.2
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 53.9 · hand skill 46.1 · cramped spaces 26.5 · 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 56.3 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 60, while the average is 27.7. 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. 60

    Recording production and operational data on specified forms

    Medium
  2. 26.5

    Reviewing work orders, specifications, diagrams and drawings to determine materials needed and assembly instructions

    Low
  3. 25.6

    Inspecting and testing completed components and assemblies, wiring installations and circuits and rejecting faulty assembly components

    Low
  4. 14.5

    Assembling component parts and electrical and electronic systems and positioning, aligning and fastening units to assemblies, subassemblies or frames using hand or power tools, soldering and micro-welding equipment

    Very Low
  5. 11.8

    Operating wire-coiling machines to wind wire coils used in electrical equipment and components such as registers, transformers, armature wires, electric motors and generators

    Very Low

5 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
45
AI does it for you
15

Helping wins by 30 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 8322

Compared with similar jobs

There are 39 jobs in the “Plant and machine operators, and assemblers” group, averaging 80.4. This one is below that.