AI Automation Index

Will AI Replace Textile Winding, Twisting, and Drawing Out Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders?

Task-level automation exposure for Textile Winding, Twisting, and Drawing Out Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders: 23 O*NET tasks scored against their work activities, plus the simulator.

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Automation Exposure

26% weighted task index

23 of 23 tasks scored

Median Salary

$38,670 / year

BLS OEWS, May 2025 — this exact occupation

Employment Level

Low

22,020 people hold this job — size, not growth

Projected 2025–35

-10.3% employment change

2,400 openings a year · BLS line item

Pay by state

BLS OEWS publishes 26 state estimates for this occupation. Each is its own survey estimate, not the national median adjusted for local prices.

$36,160 – $50,770

Highest medians

Virginia $50,770

Louisiana $49,690

New Hampshire $49,190

Washington $47,560

New Jersey $47,230

Lowest medians

Florida $36,160

Michigan $36,540

North Carolina $36,580

Nebraska $36,760

Illinois $36,950

State figures come from the 51-6064 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 26%

Importance-weighted mean of the scored tasks. This is the headline index.

Physical work 56%

Share of weighted tasks in hands-on or machine-operating work activities.

Judgment & influence 0%

Share in analysis, decisions, teaching, directing, advising, or caring for others.

Routine administration 5%

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 30/100 Moderate

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

23 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) 20%

4 tasks

Medium exposure (≥ 35%) 5%

1 tasks

Low exposure (below 35%) 75%

18 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

#14183 · Core · 65% automatable

Notify supervisors or mechanics of equipment malfunctions.

text generation — Notifying maintenance needs is routine messaging

Notify others of equipment repair or maintenance needs.

#14190 · Core · 5% automatable

Thread yarn, thread, or fabric through guides, needles, and rollers of machines.

physical manipulation — Feeding materials into equipment is physical

Feed materials or products into or through equipment.

#14184 · Core · 12% automatable

Start machines, monitor operation, and make adjustments as needed.

physical manipulation — Textile cutting/production is hands-on machine work

Operate textile cutting or production equipment.

#14192 · Core · 18% automatable

Inspect machinery to determine whether repairs are needed.

visual inspection — Physical inspection of production machinery in situ

Inspect production equipment.

#14195 · Core · 82% automatable

Record production data such as numbers and types of bobbins wound.

data analysis — Record production data into structured logs

Record operational or production data.

#14188 · Core · 70% automatable

Replace depleted supply packages with full packages.

data analysis — Materials inventory records and forecasting automatable

Maintain inventories of materials, equipment, or products.

#14196 · Core · 12% automatable

Stop machines when specified amount of products has been produced.

physical manipulation — Textile cutting/production is hands-on machine work

Operate textile cutting or production equipment.

#14186 · Core · 22% automatable

Inspect products to verify that they meet specifications and to determine whether machine adjustment is needed.

visual inspection — Textile inspection is tactile and visual, hands-on

Inspect textile products.

#14187 · Core · 12% automatable

Tend machines that twist together two or more strands of yarn or insert additional twists into single strands of yarn to increase strength, smoothness, or uniformity of yarn.

physical manipulation — Textile cutting/production is hands-on machine work

Operate textile cutting or production equipment.

#14189 · Core · 38% automatable

Observe operations to detect defects, malfunctions, or supply shortages.

visual inspection — Malfunction detection relies on live physical observation

Watch operating equipment to detect malfunctions.

#14191 · Core · 30% automatable

Operate machines for test runs to verify adjustments and to obtain product samples.

physical manipulation — Operating production equipment physically on site

Conduct test runs of production equipment.

#14202 · Supplemental · 24% automatable

Observe bobbins as they are winding and cut threads to remove loaded bobbins, using knives.

visual inspection — Sensor/vision monitoring possible, but physical verification and accountability remain human

Monitor equipment operation to ensure proper functioning. Cut fabrics.

#14201 · Supplemental · 4% automatable

Unwind lengths of yarn, thread, or twine from spools and wind onto bobbins.

physical manipulation — Hands-on loading of materials into equipment

Load materials into production equipment.

#14203 · Supplemental · 12% automatable

Adjust machine settings such as speed or tension to produce products that meet specifications.

physical manipulation — Textile cutting/production is hands-on machine work

Operate textile cutting or production equipment.

#14197 · Supplemental · 61% automatable

Study guides, samples, charts, and specification sheets, or confer with supervisors or engineering staff to determine setup requirements.

visual inspection — Blueprint setup reading partial, human confirms

Study blueprints or other instructions to determine equipment setup requirements. Exchange information with colleagues.

#14200 · Supplemental · 12% automatable

Tend spinning frames that draw out and twist roving or sliver into yarn.

physical manipulation — Textile cutting/production is hands-on machine work

Operate textile cutting or production equipment.

#14205 · Supplemental · 7% automatable

Remove spindles from machines and bobbins from spindles.

physical manipulation — Removing parts from equipment is hands-on

Remove accessories, tools, or other parts from equipment. Remove products or workpieces from production equipment.

#14199 · Supplemental · 8% automatable

Install, level, and align machine components such as gears, chains, guides, dies, cutters, or needles to set up machinery for operation.

physical manipulation — Physical control setting for cutting

Mount attachments or tools onto production equipment. Set equipment controls to meet cutting specifications. Install mechanical components in production equipment.

#14193 · Supplemental · 5% automatable

Place bobbins on spindles and insert spindles into bobbin-winding machines.

physical manipulation — Mounting workpieces is physical loading

Mount materials or workpieces onto production equipment.

#14185 · Supplemental · 12% automatable

Tend machines with multiple winding units that wind thread onto shuttle bobbins for use on sewing machines or other kinds of bobbins for sole-stitching, knitting, or weaving machinery.

physical manipulation — Textile cutting/production is hands-on machine work

Operate textile cutting or production equipment.

#14206 · Supplemental · 10% automatable

Repair or replace worn or defective parts or components, using hand tools.

physical manipulation — Hands-on removal and fitting of worn components

Replace worn equipment components. Repair production equipment or tools.

#14198 · Supplemental · 28% automatable

Measure bobbins periodically, using gauges, and turn screws to adjust tension if bobbins are not of specified size.

physical manipulation — Hands-on dimensional measurement of workpieces

Measure dimensions of completed products or workpieces to verify conformance to specifications.

#14204 · Supplemental · 8% automatable

Clean, oil, and lubricate machines, using air hoses, cleaning solutions, rags, oilcans, and grease guns.

physical manipulation — Manual lubrication of production equipment

Clean production equipment. Lubricate production equipment.

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Community Sentiment

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Method

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

See the full method →

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