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AI Automation Index
Will AI Replace Dredge Operators?
Task-level automation exposure for Dredge Operators: 6 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.
E-E-A-T Verified
Developed & audited by Gini Loh Automation Exposure
13%
weighted task index
6 of 6 tasks scored
Median Salary
$49,640 / year
BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation
Employment Level
Low
1,040 people hold this job — size, not growth
Projected 2025–35
+0.7%
employment change
100 openings a year · BLS line item
Pay by state
BLS OEWS publishes 9 state estimates for this occupation. Each is its own survey estimate, not the national median adjusted for local prices.
$45,290 – $65,580
Highest medians
Texas $65,580
New Jersey $63,810
Iowa $57,990
Wisconsin $54,310
Ohio $53,310
Lowest medians
Nebraska $45,290
Louisiana $48,590
Alabama $50,030
Florida $52,800
Ohio $53,310
State figures come from the 53-7031 row in the May 2025 state panel. States where the estimate was suppressed or too small to publish are absent.
What the score is made of
Each task is mapped to its work activities, scored for AI automation potential, and weighted by how important those activities are to the job. These are the components.
Automation potential 13%
Importance-weighted mean of the scored tasks. This is the headline index.
Physical work 84%
Share of weighted tasks in hands-on or machine-operating work activities.
Judgment & influence 14%
Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.
Routine administration 0%
Share in documenting, recording, and administrative activities.
Rewritten by O*NET 0%
Share of weighted tasks O*NET rewrote in a recent update. Reported, not folded into the score.
Consequence of error 13/100
Low
O*NET's own rating of how serious an uncorrectable mistake would be here — respondents, not us. Deliberately not in the index: the score measures what AI can do with the task content, and multiplying it by stakes would be our judgment dressed as data.
Constituent Task Mix
6 tasks for this occupation, weighted by work-activity importance. Shares below are of total task weight, not task count.
High exposure (≥ 60% of the task is automatable) 0%
0 tasks
Medium exposure (≥ 35%) 0%
0 tasks
Low exposure (below 35%) 100%
6 tasks
How would you survive?
Move your week away from the high-exposure tasks and toward the ones that need judgment. The simulator recalculates the index as you shift the mix.
Simulate Upskilling →Emerging & rewritten tasks
Tasks O*NET added or rewrote for this occupation in its recent updates (05/2025 – 08/2026), with who proposed them. Additions are not in the scored task inventory — they are new work O*NET is still measuring, so they appear here and nowhere in the index. A Revision replaces a task that is scored, which is why only those move the "Rewritten by O*NET" share.
- New 06/2008 · Incumbent
Perform maintenance on dredge equipment, such as changing engine oil.
Constituent Tasks
#15177 · Core · 8% automatable
Move levers to position dredges for excavation, to engage hydraulic pumps, to raise and lower suction booms, and to control rotation of cutterheads.
physical manipulation — Excavation equipment operated by hand in field
Operate excavation equipment.
#15178 · Core · 8% automatable
Start and stop engines to operate equipment.
physical manipulation — Excavation equipment operated by hand in field
Operate excavation equipment.
#15179 · Core · 9% automatable
Start power winches that draw in or let out cables to change positions of dredges, or pull in and let out cables manually.
physical manipulation — Crane/hoist operation demands real-time physical control
Operate excavation equipment. Operate cranes, hoists, or other moving or lifting equipment.
#15180 · Core · 15% automatable
Pump water to clear machinery pipelines.
physical manipulation — Physical control of pumping equipment
Control pumps or pumping equipment.
#15181 · Core · 22% automatable
Lower anchor poles to verify depths of excavations, using winches, or scan depth gauges to determine depths of excavations.
physical manipulation — Physical site dimension measurement
Measure work site dimensions.
#15182 · Core · 19% automatable
Direct or assist workers placing shore anchors and cables, laying additional pipes from dredges to shore, and pumping water from pontoons.
physical manipulation — Material handling direction is on-floor supervision
Control pumps or pumping equipment. Direct material handling or moving activities.
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How this was scored
- 1. Tasks. O*NET task statements for this occupation, from a release whose newest record is dated 08/2026.
- 2. Work activities. Each task maps to 1–5 Detailed Work Activities; each activity belongs to one of 41 Generalized Work Activities that O*NET rates for importance (1–5) in this occupation.
- 3. Automation potential. Every work activity carries one score for how far current AI can perform it end-to-end. Tasks inherit the mean of their activities.
- 4. Weighting. Task weight = 0.35 + 0.65 × (importance − 1)/4, scaled by how often the task is performed and by 0.7 for Supplemental tasks. Importance is the task's own O*NET rating where it exists (18,369 of 18,838 tasks); the rest inherit their work activities' importance. The index is the weighted mean.
Check: across the 910 occupations where O*NET also rates how far machine speed sets the pace, this index moves opposite to it (Spearman ρ = -0.49). The more a job is paced by equipment, the less of its task content AI can address — the relationship you would expect if the scoring is working.
Sources · O*NET 31.0 (task records to 08/2026) · BLS OEWS May 2025 · BLS projections 2025-2035 · rubric v2.1 · tasks for O*NET, not a forecast
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