{ "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register", "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/costume-attendants/", "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": "Costume Attendants", "soc_code": "39-3092", "category": "Personal Care", "us_employment": 6510, "median_annual_wage": 50400 }, "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 53, "contested": false, "near_boundary": false, "dimensions": { "task_resistance": 15, "embodiment": 17, "liability_shield": 1, "trust_premium": 11, "judgment_accountability": 9 }, "reasoning": { "task_resistance": "Fastening a hook-and-eye placket on a moving performer in a blackout, spot-cleaning sweat rings between acts, and re-setting a quick-change booth in the four minutes you actually have are all manual, unrepeatable, and situation-specific — the 15 rather than 18 reflects that costume plots, piece lists, size charts, and continuity photo databases are genuinely software work already.", "embodiment": "You are on your knees in the wings, hauling racks up loading-dock ramps, steaming in 90-degree quick-change tents and running fittings across three floors of a theatre — a 17 rather than 20 only because the fitting room and wardrobe shop are relatively controlled spaces where a share of the sewing, dyeing, and pressing happens.", "liability_shield": "There is no licence, no state board, and no certification anyone asks for at the stage door; a producer can hire you on a recommendation and a first-day trial, and when a costume fails onstage the responsibility lands with the designer and production management, not on your signature.", "trust_premium": "Performers let you touch their bodies in half-dressed states nightly and specifically request the dresser who knows their zipper order and their pre-show nerves — that recurring intimacy pushes this to 11, but dressers get reassigned mid-run, swings and subs cover shows constantly, and the show goes on without you.", "judgment_accountability": "You decide in seconds whether a split seam gets a safety pin or a swap to the understudy's track, and whether a stained bodice can go back out under the lights — real calls, but made inside a costume plot fixed by the designer and stage management who own the aesthetic and scheduling consequences." }, "rationale": "The core of this job — dressing performers, executing 40-second quick changes in the wings, steaming and repairing garments, hooking corsets and wigs under time pressure — is hands-on work in a chaotic backstage environment that no current robot touches. What AI can absorb is the paperwork layer: costume plots, inventory and tracking spreadsheets, laundry and repair schedules, rental correspondence, and continuity photo logging. The real threat to this occupation is production budgets and touring economics, not software.", "outlook": "In ten years the job still happens backstage with hands on fabric; the clerical half thins out, and the workers who hold wardrobe supervisor titles and union cards keep the steady work.", "what_would_raise_it": { "levers": [ { "dimension": "embodiment", "change": "Wardrobe work stays bodily by definition; the score only rises if the job's remaining hours concentrate further in the wings — e.g. IATSE Local 764 (NYC) or 705 (LA) contract language that reserves quick-change and on-body dressing duties to bargaining-unit members while allowing producers to offload plots/inventory to software, so the paid day becomes almost entirely hands-on.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 2 }, { "dimension": "task_resistance", "change": "Genuine two-tier structure: if the plot/inventory/continuity-log tier is absorbed by production software (Propared, Yesplan, AI photo continuity logging), the surviving role is fitting-room judgment, on-the-body alteration, and live-show crisis improvisation — none of which is text work. Watch for job postings that drop 'maintains costume database' and keep only run-crew duties.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 2 }, { "dimension": "trust_premium", "change": "Audience-facing 'live, human-crafted' positioning already prices this in for legit theatre and opera; a rise would need something like Actors' Equity or a producing house publishing a hand-tailoring/human-dresser guarantee in marketing, or Broadway League practice making named wardrobe credits contractual, the way 'live orchestra' billing works after the 2003 musicians' strike.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 2 }, { "dimension": "judgment_accountability", "change": "Performer-safety framing: if an OSHA or Equity-negotiated rule makes the wardrobe supervisor the named person accountable for flame-retardant treatment certification, harness/flying-rig garment interface, and quick-change sightline safety on a given production, the role owns a consequential call under ambiguity rather than executing someone else's plot.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "No licensure exists and none is proposed. The nearest real hook is NFPA 701 flame-resistance compliance for stage textiles, where a venue fire marshal, not a costume attendant, signs. A route would require a state fire code amendment naming a certified wardrobe supervisor as attestor for treated garments — not visibly in motion anywhere.", "plausibility": "unlikely", "would_add": 2 } ], "ceiling_note": "Scoring gains are small and mostly cosmetic against the actual threat named in the profile: 6,510 workers whose headcount tracks production budgets, tour capitalization, and how many dressers a house is willing to pay for. Non-union regional and cruise/theme-park wardrobe work is where cuts land, and no liability or trust mechanism reaches it. A high score here would mean the job is hard to automate, not that it is safe." }, "adjudication": null, "employment_history": { "points": [ { "y": 2017, "emp": 6430, "wage": 42620 }, { "y": 2018, "emp": 6460, "wage": 41190 }, { "y": 2019, "emp": 7460, "wage": 41410 }, { "y": 2020, "emp": 5750, "wage": 42910 }, { "y": 2021, "emp": 3380, "wage": 47850 }, { "y": 2022, "emp": 5730, "wage": 48470 }, { "y": 2023, "emp": 6300, "wage": 52370 }, { "y": 2024, "emp": 6290, "wage": 54810 }, { "y": 2025, "emp": 6510, "wage": 50400 } ], "from": 2017, "to": 2025, "change_pct": 1.2, "comparable_from": 2019, "spans_soc_revision": true }, "pivots": [], "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms" }