{
  "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register",
  "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/extraction-workers-all-other/",
  "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": "Extraction Workers, All Other",
    "soc_code": "47-5099",
    "category": "Construction",
    "us_employment": 5540,
    "median_annual_wage": 57010
  },
  "verdict": "EXPOSED",
  "risk_resistance": 51,
  "contested": false,
  "near_boundary": false,
  "dimensions": {
    "task_resistance": 15,
    "embodiment": 18,
    "liability_shield": 6,
    "trust_premium": 4,
    "judgment_accountability": 8
  },
  "reasoning": {
    "task_resistance": "Rigging and breaking out drill string, chaining down casing, clearing a jammed conveyor tail pulley, re-packing a mud pump — these are irregular, feel-dependent jobs on equipment that is never in the same position twice, which is why they sit at 15 rather than in the automatable band; the 5 points shaved off reflect that the repetitive haul-and-drill cycles adjacent to your work are already running driverless at Pilbara and Nevada-scale operations.",
    "embodiment": "An 18 is what you get when the workplace is a wellpad in freezing wind, a quarry bench after rain, or an underground drift with ground control, ventilation, and confined-space entry all in play — you are handling loads by hand in the presence of moving iron and pressurized fluid, and only the fact that some of this happens on a fixed, engineered site rather than pure open terrain keeps it off 20.",
    "liability_shield": "MSHA Part 46/48 new-miner and annual refresher training and, where you handle shot support, ATF explosives possessor and state blaster licensing create real hiring friction — but none of that is a licence you personally sign work under; the mine foreman, competent person, and blaster-in-charge carry the citation and the sign-off, which caps you at 6 instead of the 11+ a personally liable licence-holder earns.",
    "trust_premium": "Your output is tonnage, footage, and uptime measured at the scale house or the pump chart — the operator can swap a contract crew mid-shift without a customer noticing, and the 4 rather than 0 reflects only that the shift boss knows which hands he wants on a tricky trip-out or a hot bolt-up.",
    "judgment_accountability": "An 8 recognizes the calls you genuinely own — pulling back when the ground sounds wrong, refusing to work under an unsupported back, deciding a hoist rope or a wire sling is done — but most of the shift runs on written JSAs, permit-to-work, LOTO steps, and MSHA-mandated workplace exams, and anything ambiguous and expensive escalates to the foreman or engineer rather than resolving in your hands."
  },
  "rationale": "This catch-all covers mine, quarry, and well-site workers who don't fit the named extraction titles: rigging drill strings, tending pumps and conveyors, handling explosives support, servicing equipment in pits, tunnels, and wellpads. Almost none of that is text-on-a-screen work, so language AI barely touches it — but mining is one of the few sectors where physical automation is genuinely funded and shipping: autonomous haulage, remote-operated drills, and automated longwall systems have already cut headcount at large operators. The exposure here is capital-intensive robotics and consolidation, not chatbots, and MSHA/blasting certifications give some regulatory friction but no personal sign-off liability.",
  "outlook": "Employment in this small residual category keeps drifting down as autonomous haulage and remote drilling spread at large operators, while the maintenance, blasting, and confined-space repair tiers hold and pay better.",
  "what_would_raise_it": {
    "levers": [
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "MSHA or state blasting authorities extending named-person accountability beyond the blaster-in-charge — e.g. a rule requiring a certified individual to be physically present and personally sign the shot report, magazine inventory, and post-blast inspection for every detonation, including remote-initiated ones. ATF magazine/responsible-person requirements and state blaster licensing already work this way; the gap is that automated or remotely initiated sequences have no clear named signer. A similar route: MSHA requiring a certified person to sign off on re-entry after ground-control events or gas readings rather than accepting sensor telemetry alone.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 5
      },
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "Post-fatality enforcement pattern — if MSHA or a state AG charges operators for autonomous-equipment incidents where no certified person had signed off on the exclusion zone, insurers and operators typically respond by mandating a named, certified on-site controller per autonomous fleet. Watch for autonomous-haulage-specific provisions in MSHA rulemaking or in mine-specific ground control plans.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 4
      },
      {
        "dimension": "judgment_accountability",
        "change": "Task-mix shift: this SOC genuinely has two tiers. If autonomous haulage, remote drills and automated longwall absorb the routine tending and hauling, the surviving residual is fault diagnosis, unplanned rescue and recovery, explosives handling in irregular ground, and go/no-go calls on unstable faces — all judgment under ambiguity with no fallback. Headcount falls but the remaining role's accountability weight rises. Checkable via job postings shifting toward 'autonomous fleet field technician' and 'ground control' titles.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 5
      },
      {
        "dimension": "task_resistance",
        "change": "Same two-tier shift raises residual task resistance: the tasks left after automation (confined-space entry, explosives magazine handling, recovery of stuck or damaged equipment in unmapped ground) are precisely the ones robotics vendors exclude from scope. Not a new law — just what remains.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "embodiment",
        "change": "Already near ceiling at 18; no realistic upward route beyond noting that underground unpredictable-ground work is the hardest residual.",
        "plausibility": "unlikely",
        "would_add": 1
      }
    ],
    "ceiling_note": "Trust premium has no plausible route — buyers are mining and oil operators purchasing tonnage and uptime, and no customer pays extra for human-extracted ore. The real risk here is not scoring but volume: even if per-worker scores rise on judgment and liability, an already-tiny 5,540-worker SOC can shrink sharply through consolidation while each surviving role becomes more resistant. A higher score for the occupation is compatible with far fewer jobs in it."
  },
  "adjudication": null,
  "employment_history": {
    "points": [
      {
        "y": 2017,
        "emp": 4970,
        "wage": 49230
      },
      {
        "y": 2018,
        "emp": 6110,
        "wage": 54840
      },
      {
        "y": 2021,
        "emp": 5380,
        "wage": 48140
      },
      {
        "y": 2022,
        "emp": 6290,
        "wage": 51600
      },
      {
        "y": 2023,
        "emp": 7120,
        "wage": 49580
      },
      {
        "y": 2024,
        "emp": 6070,
        "wage": 50110
      },
      {
        "y": 2025,
        "emp": 5540,
        "wage": 57010
      }
    ],
    "from": 2017,
    "to": 2025,
    "change_pct": 11.5,
    "comparable_from": 2019,
    "spans_soc_revision": true
  },
  "pivots": [],
  "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms"
}