Chemical Plant and System Operators

High Risk
71%

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Vote Comments (3)
AUTOMATION RISK
CALCULATED
88%
(Imminent Risk)
POLLING
54%
(Moderate Risk, Based on 50 votes)
Average: 71%
LABOR DEMAND
GROWTH
-0.8%
by year 2033
WAGES
$80,030
or $38.47 per hour
Volume
17,980
as of 2023
SUMMARY
What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
3.3/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

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Calculated automation risk

88% (Imminent Risk)

Imminent Risk (81-100%): Occupations in this level have an extremely high likelihood of being automated in the near future. These jobs consist primarily of repetitive, predictable tasks with little need for human judgment.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Some quite important qualities of the job are difficult to automate:

  • Cramped Work Space, Awkward Positions

  • Manual Dexterity

  • Finger Dexterity

User poll

54% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted they are unsure if this occupation will be automated. However, the automation risk level we have generated suggests a much higher chance of automation: 88% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Chemical Plant and System Operators will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Growth

Very slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Chemical Plant and System Operators' job openings is expected to decline 0.8% by 2033

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Wages

High paid relative to other professions

In 2023, the median annual wage for 'Chemical Plant and System Operators' was 80.030 $, or 38 $ per hour

'Chemical Plant and System Operators' were paid 66.5% higher than the national median wage, which stood at 48.060 $

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Volume

Lower range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2023 there were 17,980 people employed as 'Chemical Plant and System Operators' within the United States.

This represents around < 0.001% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 8 thousand people are employed as 'Chemical Plant and System Operators'.

Job description

Control or operate entire chemical processes or system of machines.

SOC Code: 51-8091.00

Comments (3)

Stephen
08 Dec 2025 15:54
This is not going to be replaced. As someone who used to work in a refinery, they would never let AI into any refinery operations in the US. Even to this day, they don't even use wireless communications for security purposes. Every signal is wired with a physical wire to and from the control room out to the plant. This is done to prevent from hacking and electronic attacks. If they wanted to fully automate the plant, they could have already done that. They don't want to. They want operators there. It's not just about operational efficiency, it's about security.
Robert
30 Nov 2025 00:06
Chemical plant operators need to manually manipulate many valves and know how to control reactions or emergency situations safely. To have AI do this would be very difficult requiring billions in upgrades to make every component electronically controlled and then likely to fail and cause a major incident release or explosion I would think. For AI to slowly learn and get better at something the consequences of failure cannot be as high as running a dangerous chemical plant.
Jimmy (Uncertain)
14 Sep 2024 20:00
I don't think AI can perform all the tasks in my plant
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