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Elementary occupations · code 9121

Hand launderers and pressers

Hand launderers and pressers launder, press or dry-clean garments, linen and other textiles by hand. Tasks include - (a) laundering and pressing linen, clothing, fabrics and similar articles by hand in a laundry or other establishment; (b) cleaning, by hand and with chemical solutions, clothing, fabrics, leather goods and similar articles, in a dry-cleaning or other establishment; (c) replacing buttons and making minor repairs; (d) placing articles on shelves and hanging articles for delivery and collection. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Dry-cleaner (hand) - Hand launderer - Hand presser - Ironer Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Dry-cleaning machine operator - 8157 - Laundry machine operator - 8157 - Pressing machine operator (laundry) - 8157

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 70 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • wearing apparel presser
  • linen room attendant

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

85.6
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 14.4 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 14.4 = 85.6

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

61
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, matched to one US job

34.9
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 44.6 · hand skill 42.9 · cramped spaces 17.3 · 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

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 61 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 17.5, while the average is 14.4. 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. 17.5

    Placing articles on shelves and hanging articles for delivery and collection.

    Very Low
  2. 15

    Laundering and pressing linen, clothing, fabrics and similar articles by hand in a laundry or other establishment

    Very Low
  3. 14

    Replacing buttons and making minor repairs

    Very Low
  4. 11

    Cleaning, by hand and with chemical solutions, clothing, fabrics, leather goods and similar articles, in a dry-cleaning or other establishment

    Very Low

4 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, but only partly: not everyone in it does this job. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

AI helps you
43
AI does it for you
19

Helping wins by 24 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 8115

Compared with similar jobs

There are 33 jobs in the “Elementary occupations” group, averaging 85. This one is above that.