Headline risk
3%
Very Low RiskLogging equipment operators
United States AI Work Index tracks this occupation on the shared structural baseline and then layers on local demand resilience, wages, and confidence.
Why This Score
Share of job tasks that overlap with current AI capabilities
Median annual wage
Projected employment change over 10 years
Typical preparation needed for this occupation
Occupation profile
Drive logging tractor or wheeled vehicle equipped with one or more accessories, such as bulldozer blade, frontal shear, grapple, logging arch, cable winches, hoisting rack, or crane boom, to fell tree; to skid, load, unload, or stack logs; or to pull stumps or clear brush. Includes operating stand-alone logging machines, such as log chippers.
Task evidence
100% weighted task match · 0% effective coverage
Scores combine AI task overlap, human advantages, and local demand. How it works
United States Now
Median Wage
USD 49,210
Employment 2024
30.9K
Projected Change (2024–34)
-1.4%
Openings (2024–34)
4.2K
Wage distribution
Demand outlook
Overall employment of logging workers is projected to grow 2 percent from 2024 to 2034, decline.
Role Profile
Tasks
- 1. Inspect equipment for safety prior to use, and perform necessary basic maintenance tasks. AI use: 0%
- 2. Drive straight or articulated tractors equipped with accessories such as bulldozer blades, grapples, logging arches, cable winches, and crane booms to skid, load, unload, or stack logs, pull stumps, or clear brush. AI use: 0%
- 3. Control hydraulic tractors equipped with tree clamps and booms to lift, swing, and bunch sheared trees. AI use: 0%
- 4. Drive crawler or wheeled tractors to drag or transport logs from felling sites to log landing areas for processing and loading. AI use: 0%
- 5. Grade logs according to characteristics such as knot size and straightness, and according to established industry or company standards. AI use: 0%
- 6. Fill out required job or shift report forms. AI use: 0%
Technologies
Work context
Worker profile
Median age 40.9 · 404K employed
Under 25: 14% · 25–54: 65% · 55+: 21%
Related
No direct US role match is available yet for this occupation.
Source coverage
10/11 source families · O*NET 30.2 / OEWS 2024 / ORS 2025 / OOH 2025-08-28 / Projections 2024-34 / CPS 2025 / Anthropic task penetration
Mapping quality
title_match · employment series present
Narrative & sources
Logging workers harvest trees to provide the raw material for many consumer goods and industrial products.
Logging is physically demanding and can be dangerous. Workers spend all their time outdoors, sometimes in poor weather and often in isolated areas. Most work full time, and some work more than 40 hours per week.
Logging workers typically need a high school diploma, although some jobs do not require a formal educational credential. These workers get on-the-job training to become familiar with forest environments and to learn how to operate logging machinery.
The median annual wage for logging workers was $49,540 in May 2024.
Overall employment of logging workers is projected to grow 2 percent from 2024 to 2034, decline.
Published limitations
This page shows the local country layer, not realised individual job outcomes. The global structural baseline is shared across countries; only the local demand and wage layer changes here.
Built from O*NET occupation descriptions, task statements, technology skills, work context, Job Zones, Anthropic task penetration, BLS OEWS wages, BLS projection tables, BLS ORS requirements, BLS OOH narrative content, BLS skills data, and BLS CPS occupation age tables.