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Plant and machine operators, and assemblers · code 8219

Assemblers not elsewhere classified

Assemblers not elsewhere classified assemble, according to procedures strictly laid down, various products that do not include electronic, electrical, or mechanical components. Tasks include - (a) assembling component parts 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) inspecting and testing components and completed assemblies; (e) rejecting faulty products. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Ammunition assembler - Bicycle assembler - Box builder - Door assembler - Eyeglass frame assembler - Furniture finisher (wood) - Jewellery assembler - Knife assembler - Leather products assembler - Luggage finisher - Metal products assembler (except mechanical) - Paperboard products assembler - Pen and pencil assembler - Plastic products assembler - Plastic toy assembler - Rubber products assembler - Sun-blinds assembler - Textile products assembler - Thermos bottle assembler - Wood products assembler

A few tasks are affected, but the heart of the job isn't. It ranks 256 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • metal products assembler
  • furniture assembler
  • ammunition assembler
  • jewellery assembler
  • wood products assembler
  • plastic products assembler
  • rubber goods assembler
  • metal furniture machine operator
  • medical device assembler
  • firework assembler
  • bicycle assembler

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

68.1
Holds up
against AI Minimal Exposure

AI could take on 31.9 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 31.9 = 68.1

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

61.2
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, matched to one US job

35.7
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 46.4 · hand skill 44.6 · cramped spaces 16 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on 50+ · fiddly under 39.4 Hands-on, less fiddly work

Less fine handwork and fewer cramped spaces than a typical hands-on job. That clears one hurdle for machines. It doesn't mean machines are doing this work yet.

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

What this number leaves out This job rates 61.2 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, and for work like this robots are the bigger question.

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 59, while the average is 31.9. 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. 59

    Recording production and operational data on specified forms

    Medium
  2. 32

    Rejecting faulty products.

    Low
  3. 28.5

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

    Low
  4. 26.5

    Inspecting and testing components and completed assemblies

    Low
  5. 13.5

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

    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 80.5. This one is below that.