Headline risk
3%
Very Low RiskLog graders and scalers
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
Grade logs or estimate the marketable content or value of logs or pulpwood in sorting yards, millpond, log deck, or similar locations. Inspect logs for defects or measure logs to determine volume.
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 46,710
Employment 2024
4.6K
Projected Change (2024–34)
-0.7%
Openings (2024–34)
0.6K
Wage distribution
Demand outlook
Overall employment of logging workers is projected to grow 2 percent from 2024 to 2034, decline.
Role Profile
Tasks
- 1. Evaluate log characteristics and determine grades, using established criteria. AI use: 0%
- 2. Record data about individual trees or load volumes into tally books or hand-held collection terminals. AI use: 0%
- 3. Measure felled logs or loads of pulpwood to calculate volume, weight, dimensions, and marketable value, using measuring devices and conversion tables. AI use: 0%
- 4. Paint identification marks of specified colors on logs to identify grades or species, using spray cans, or call out grades to log markers. AI use: 0%
- 5. Identify logs of substandard or special grade so that they can be returned to shippers, regraded, recut, or transferred for other processing. AI use: 0%
- 6. Jab logs with metal ends of scale sticks, and inspect logs to ascertain characteristics or defects such as water damage, splits, knots, broken ends, rotten areas, twists, and curves. AI use: 0%
Technologies
Work context
Worker profile
Median age 45.4 · 58K employed
Under 25: 9% · 25–54: 57% · 55+: 34%
Related
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.