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AI Automation Index
Will AI Replace Fiberglass Laminators and Fabricators?
Task-level automation exposure for Fiberglass Laminators and Fabricators: 16 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
16 of 16 tasks scored
Median Salary
$46,880 / year
BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation
Employment Level
Low
16,170 people hold this job — size, not growth
Projected 2025–35
+4.6%
employment change
1,700 openings a year · BLS line item
Pay by state
BLS OEWS publishes 36 state estimates for this occupation. Each is its own survey estimate, not the national median adjusted for local prices.
$35,670 – $58,410
Highest medians
Washington $58,410
Massachusetts $55,980
Pennsylvania $54,800
New Jersey $54,080
Idaho $53,040
Lowest medians
Georgia $35,670
Minnesota $37,410
Alabama $38,360
Virginia $39,140
Oklahoma $39,260
State figures come from the 51-2051 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 80%
Share of weighted tasks in hands-on or machine-operating work activities.
Judgment & influence 8%
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 22/100
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
16 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%) 7%
1 tasks
Low exposure (below 35%) 93%
15 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 →Constituent Tasks
#13970 · Core · 8% automatable
Release air bubbles and smooth seams, using rollers.
physical manipulation — Hand sanding and finishing of physical objects
Smooth surfaces of objects or equipment.
#13971 · Core · 4% automatable
Spray chopped fiberglass, resins, and catalysts onto prepared molds or dies using pneumatic spray guns with chopper attachments.
physical manipulation — Manual placement of materials into molds
Place materials into molds.
#13974 · Core · 10% automatable
Mix catalysts into resins, and saturate cloth and mats with mixtures, using brushes.
physical manipulation — Physical mixing of chemical solutions
Mix substances to create chemical solutions. Apply water or solutions to fabrics or apparel.
#13976 · Core · 28% automatable
Check completed products for conformance to specifications and for defects by measuring with rulers or micrometers, by checking them visually, or by tapping them to detect bubbles or dead spots.
physical manipulation — Hands-on dimensional measurement of workpieces
Measure dimensions of completed products or workpieces to verify conformance to specifications.
#13973 · Core · 4% automatable
Pat or press layers of saturated mat or cloth into place on molds, using brushes or hands, and smooth out wrinkles and air bubbles with hands or squeegees.
physical manipulation — Manual placement of materials into molds
Place materials into molds.
#13972 · Core · 58% automatable
Select precut fiberglass mats, cloth, and wood-bracing materials as required by projects being assembled.
decision support — Input material selection from specs; human approves
Select production input materials.
#13975 · Core · 8% automatable
Bond wood reinforcing strips to decks and cabin structures of watercraft, using resin-saturated fiberglass.
physical manipulation — Hands-on adhesive application in unstructured construction settings
Apply adhesives to construction materials.
#13977 · Core · 8% automatable
Trim excess materials from molds, using hand shears or trimming knives.
physical manipulation — Manual trimming of workpieces
Trim excess material from workpieces.
#13980 · Supplemental · 5% automatable
Apply layers of plastic resin to mold surfaces prior to placement of fiberglass mats, repeating layers until products have the desired thicknesses and plastics have jelled.
physical manipulation — Applying parting agents is manual mold prep
Apply parting agents or other solutions to molds.
#13984 · Supplemental · 9% automatable
Inspect, clean, and assemble molds before beginning work.
visual inspection — Physical inspection of production machinery in situ
Inspect production equipment. Clean production equipment. Build production molds.
#13979 · Supplemental · 3% automatable
Cure materials by letting them set at room temperature, placing them under heat lamps, or baking them in ovens.
physical manipulation — Manual loading into hot ovens or furnaces
Load items into ovens or furnaces.
#13982 · Supplemental · 5% automatable
Apply lacquers and waxes to mold surfaces to facilitate assembly and removal of laminated parts.
physical manipulation — Applying parting agents is manual mold prep
Apply parting agents or other solutions to molds.
#13978 · Supplemental · 10% automatable
Repair or modify damaged or defective glass-fiber parts, checking thicknesses, densities, and contours to ensure a close fit after repair.
physical manipulation — Physical disassembly and reassembly of parts
Repair parts or assemblies.
#13981 · Supplemental · 8% automatable
Mask off mold areas not to be laminated, using cellophane, wax paper, masking tape, or special sprays containing mold-release substances.
physical manipulation — Hands-on adhesive application in unstructured construction settings
Apply adhesives to construction materials.
#13983 · Supplemental · 18% automatable
Check all dies, templates, and cutout patterns to be used in the manufacturing process to ensure that they conform to dimensional data, photographs, blueprints, samples, or customer specifications.
visual inspection — Physical inspection of production machinery in situ
Inspect production equipment.
#13985 · Supplemental · 8% automatable
Trim cured materials by sawing them with diamond-impregnated cutoff wheels.
physical manipulation — Manual trimming of workpieces
Trim excess material from workpieces.
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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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