{
  "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register",
  "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/control-and-valve-installers-and-repairers-except-mechanical-door/",
  "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology",
  "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.",
  "scored_at": "2026-08-11",
  "model": "claude-opus-5",
  "occupation": {
    "title": "Control and Valve Installers and Repairers, Except Mechanical Door",
    "soc_code": "49-9012",
    "category": "Trades",
    "us_employment": 48240,
    "median_annual_wage": 74340
  },
  "verdict": "SAFE",
  "risk_resistance": 68,
  "contested": false,
  "near_boundary": false,
  "dimensions": {
    "task_resistance": 16,
    "embodiment": 18,
    "liability_shield": 11,
    "trust_premium": 10,
    "judgment_accountability": 13
  },
  "reasoning": {
    "task_resistance": "Rebuilding a pressure regulator's diaphragm and spring stack, bench-testing a control valve's actuator stroke, and re-seating a leaking gate valve are manual sequences no software substitutes for — the 16 rather than 19 reflects that diagnostics, trending on smart positioners, and route/work-order scheduling genuinely are being pulled into asset-management platforms.",
    "embodiment": "You work in meter pits, pipeline vaults, confined spaces requiring atmospheric monitoring, and live plant piping in whatever weather the right-of-way delivers, with hand tools, pipe wrenches, and a combustible-gas indicator — the physical conditions are the job, and only the report-writing happens at a screen.",
    "liability_shield": "DOT Part 192 Subpart N Operator Qualification and state gas-fitter or journeyman licences name you individually as qualified for each covered task and require re-evaluation after an incident, but the utility or plant owner carries the code compliance and the pressure-vessel liability, which keeps this below the surveyor-or-PE tier.",
    "trust_premium": "Plant maintenance planners and utility dispatchers request specific techs who know which regulator station always sticks and which customer's basement meter is a nightmare, but you're dispatched by work order, not hired by name, and most residential customers never learn who you are.",
    "judgment_accountability": "You decide whether a valve gets rebuilt or replaced, whether a line can stay in service at reduced pressure, and whether an odor call warrants shutting off and evacuating — real calls with explosion consequences, though set-point specs, MAOP limits, and company operating procedures bound most of them."
  },
  "rationale": "The core of this job is physically getting to a gas meter, regulator, hydraulic valve, or industrial control loop — often in a vault, crawl space, pipeline right-of-way, or plant interstitial — and disassembling, calibrating, and leak-testing it by hand. AI can write the service report, pull the schematic, and suggest a fault tree, but it cannot torque a valve bonnet or sniff out a gas leak. Most of these workers operate under DOT Operator Qualification rules or state gas-fitting requirements, which put a named, qualified human on the hook for pressure-bearing work.",
  "outlook": "Remote monitoring will cut routine inspection rounds, but grid replacement programs, aging pipeline infrastructure, and mandatory human sign-off on pressure work keep field headcount roughly stable through the 2030s.",
  "what_would_raise_it": {
    "levers": [
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "PHMSA tightening of 49 CFR Part 192 Subpart N Operator Qualification — specifically expanding the list of 'covered tasks' to include control-loop calibration and safety-instrumented-system (SIS) proof testing, and requiring a named qualified individual's signature on each pressure test record rather than crew-level attestation. PHMSA has repeatedly reopened OQ rulemaking after NTSB recommendations following incidents like San Bruno and Merrimack Valley; the Merrimack Valley overpressure event already drove the PIPES Act 2020 requirement for a qualified professional engineer to seal distribution work plans.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 4
      },
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "State gas-fitting license expansion: states that currently allow utility-employee exemptions from journeyman gas-fitter licensure (varies widely) closing that exemption, plus insurer requirements that IEC 61511 SIS proof-test records carry a named certified functional-safety technician (TUV FS Tech) signature. Boiler and pressure-vessel insurers (FM Global, HSB) already condition coverage on documented test records.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "judgment_accountability",
        "change": "Task-mix shift: as remote SCADA telemetry and AI diagnostics absorb the routine 'go read the regulator, log the setpoint' visits, the remaining dispatches are the anomalous ones — the leak of unknown origin, the valve that won't seat, the decision to blow down a line versus keep a hospital in service. The call to isolate or depressurize a live segment carries consequences the technician owns on site, and it becomes a larger share of the day.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "task_resistance",
        "change": "Same two-tier shift raises the floor: routine calibration rounds and report writing are the automatable tier; hot-tapping, in-service valve rebuilds in confined vaults, and abnormal-condition response are not, and become the bulk of the job.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 2
      }
    ],
    "ceiling_note": "Trust premium has no realistic route — the buyer is a utility or plant operator purchasing compliance and uptime, not a human touch, and no end customer chooses their gas fitter. Embodiment is already near ceiling at 18. Realistic top is high 70s; the binding limit is that the work is already physically irreducible, so most remaining headroom is in the OQ/licensure paperwork layer."
  },
  "adjudication": null,
  "employment_history": {
    "points": [
      {
        "y": 2017,
        "emp": 47700,
        "wage": 55850
      },
      {
        "y": 2018,
        "emp": 51730,
        "wage": 56070
      },
      {
        "y": 2019,
        "emp": 52270,
        "wage": 58100
      },
      {
        "y": 2020,
        "emp": 50660,
        "wage": 60580
      },
      {
        "y": 2021,
        "emp": 44870,
        "wage": 62760
      },
      {
        "y": 2022,
        "emp": 46410,
        "wage": 64810
      },
      {
        "y": 2023,
        "emp": 47780,
        "wage": 70100
      },
      {
        "y": 2024,
        "emp": 46920,
        "wage": 74690
      },
      {
        "y": 2025,
        "emp": 48240,
        "wage": 74340
      }
    ],
    "from": 2017,
    "to": 2025,
    "change_pct": 1.1,
    "comparable_from": 2019,
    "spans_soc_revision": true
  },
  "pivots": [],
  "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms"
}