Telephone Operators

AUTOMATION RISK
CALCULATED
100%
risk level
POLLING
85%
Based on 77 votes
LABOR DEMAND
GROWTH
-24.5%
by 2031
WAGES
$38,330
or $18.43 hourly
VOLUME
4,030
as of 2022
SUMMARY
JOB SCORE
0.7/10

Automation risk

100% (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:

  • Social Perceptiveness

  • Assisting and Caring for Others

User poll

85% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted that it's highly likely this occupation will be replaced. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 100% probability of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that this occupation will be replaced by robots or AI in the next 20 years?






Growth

Very slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Telephone Operators' job openings is expected to decline by 24.5% by 2031

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2021 and 2031.
Updated projections are due Sep 2023.

Wages

Very low paid relative to other professions

In 2022, the median annual wage for 'Telephone Operators' was $38,330, or $18.43 per hour

'Telephone Operators' were paid 17.2% lower than the national median wage, which stood at $46,310

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Volume

Significantly lower range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2022 there were 4,030 people employed as Telephone Operators within the United States.

This represents around 0.003% of the employed workforce across the country.

Put another way, around 1 in 36 thousand people are employed as Telephone Operators.

Job description

Provide information by accessing alphabetical, geographical, or other directories. Assist customers with special billing requests, such as charges to a third party and credits or refunds for incorrectly dialed numbers or bad connections. May handle emergency calls and assist children or people with physical disabilities to make telephone calls.

SOC Code: 43-2021.00

Resources

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Comments

Alvin(Data Scientist) (Highly likely) says
Already has been. Companies are just having to ween the tech in slowly so it doesn’t disrupt too many people's lives. But the average data scientist is able to whip up something useable for most customer service calling situations.
Oct 11, 2021 at 07:18 AM
Harrison McDonald (Highly likely) says
Already pretty much happened
Aug 14, 2021 at 09:03 PM
manu martinez (Highly likely) says
because technology is evolving to rapid that is taking the world by storm in everything
Aug 12, 2020 at 04:06 AM
Sarah (Highly likely) says
Telephone operator as an occupation will soon be gone because that job has been declining so quickly we can not imagine.
Jun 25, 2019 at 11:12 PM
seojin (Highly likely) says
no creativity, no collaboration, no critical thinking, repeatition and uncomplicated. that's why.
Jun 03, 2019 at 10:10 AM

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