AI exposure: Structural Iron and Steel Workers
Raise, place, and unite iron or steel girders, columns, and other structural members to form completed structures or structural frameworks. May erect metal storage tanks and assemble prefabricated metal buildings.
Reading this score
computedStructural Iron and Steel Workers is among the least exposed occupations measured, at 2.6% of weighted task load, rank 900 of 923. 95.2% of this job is work current AI systems cannot produce at all. That is not a statement about skill or value. It is a statement about what these systems can and cannot do.
What holds the line here is embodiment. Across this occupation's 20 tasks it averages 2.90 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work has to happen in physical space. A language model cannot move matter. Until the robotics to do this work is both good enough and cheap enough to deploy widely, capability in software does not reach it.
The most exposed thing this job does is Read specifications or blueprints to determine the locations, quantities, or sizes of materials..., at 30.0%. The least is Catch hot rivets in buckets and insert rivets in holes, at 0.0%. A gap of 30.0% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within construction and extraction occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 5.1% across the group's 61 roles, with 43 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.
What would move this score. Of 20 tasks, 1 are currently banded exposed, 0 assisted and 19 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take robotics cheap and reliable enough to deploy at scale, not a better language model. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 0.15 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 2.90 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.28 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 0.91 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.03 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.52 | 0-3 |
Task by task
20 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read specifications or blueprints to determine the locations, quantities, or sizes of materials required. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 4.47 | exposed |
| Verify vertical and horizontal alignment of structural steel members, using plumb bobs, laser equipment, transits, or levels. | 10.0% | 15.0% | 75.0% | 4.07 | untouched |
| Erect metal or precast concrete components for structures, such as buildings, bridges, dams, towers, storage tanks, fences, or highway guard rails. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.06 | untouched |
| Bolt aligned structural steel members in position for permanent riveting, bolting, or welding into place. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.04 | untouched |
| Assemble or inspect hoisting equipment or rigging, such as cables, pulleys, or hooks, to move heavy equipment or materials. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.04 | untouched |
| Lift steel beams, girders, or columns using cranes or forklifts, or by signaling hoisting equipment operators to lift or position structural steel members. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.02 | untouched |
| Fabricate metal parts, such as steel frames, columns, beams, or girders, according to blueprints or instructions from supervisors. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.02 | untouched |
| Connect columns, beams, and girders with bolts, following blueprints and instructions from supervisors. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.00 | untouched |
| Pull, push, or pry structural steel members into approximate positions for bolting into place. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.99 | untouched |
| Unload and position prefabricated steel units for hoisting, as needed. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.98 | untouched |
| Fasten structural steel members to hoist cables, using chains, cables, or rope. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.85 | untouched |
| Cut, bend, or weld steel pieces, using metal shears, torches, or welding equipment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.76 | untouched |
| Force structural steel members into final positions, using turnbuckles, crowbars, jacks, or hand tools. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.75 | untouched |
| Ride on girders or other structural steel members to position them, or use rope to guide them into position. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.61 | untouched |
| Drive drift pins through rivet holes to align rivet holes in structural steel members with corresponding holes in previously placed members. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.50 | untouched |
| Dismantle structures or equipment. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.47 | untouched |
| Insert sealing strips, wiring, insulating material, ladders, flanges, gauges, or valves, depending on types of structures being assembled. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.75 | untouched |
| Place blocks under reinforcing bars used to reinforce floors. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.22 | untouched |
| Hold rivets while riveters use air hammers to form heads on rivets. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.05 | untouched |
| Catch hot rivets in buckets and insert rivets in holes, using tongs. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 2.52 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.
What this means in practice
Most of this work is not reachable by current systems, so the immediate pressure is on the administrative edges of the role rather than its core: the scheduling, the reporting, the written records. That is where time is recovered.