{ "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register", "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/helpers-electricians/", "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": "Helpers--Electricians", "soc_code": "47-3013", "category": "Construction", "us_employment": 63630, "median_annual_wage": 42670 }, "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 48, "contested": false, "near_boundary": false, "dimensions": { "task_resistance": 16, "embodiment": 18, "liability_shield": 4, "trust_premium": 5, "judgment_accountability": 5 }, "reasoning": { "task_resistance": "Fishing wire through a finished ceiling, bending 3/4 EMT around a beam that isn't where the drawing said, and digging trenches for service runs are tasks where every repetition differs by inches and no vision system yet handles the reach-into-a-dark-joist-bay problem at anything like a helper's wage — hence 16, not lower.", "embodiment": "You work off ladders and lifts in unconditioned buildings, crawl in attics and crawlspaces, carry 500-foot spools and 10-foot sticks of conduit, and do it around live circuits and other trades' debris — that's uncontrolled site work, and only the small share of shop or prefab-bench time keeps it off 20.", "liability_shield": "No state licenses helpers; you work under a journeyman or master's card, your work is inspected against their name on the permit, and the only credential you might carry is OSHA 10 — which stops nobody from replacing you.", "trust_premium": "The foreman who hires you cares whether you show up sober with your own hand tools and remember which color goes where; being known and reliable gets you called back to the next job, but the homeowner never learns your name and the GC signs with the contractor, not you.", "judgment_accountability": "You're told where to drill, what gauge to pull, and how high to set the boxes; the discretion left to you is spotting that a stud has a plumbing line behind it or that a cord is frayed and saying so — real, but not a call anyone will hold you to." }, "rationale": "Pulling wire through joists, drilling studs, cutting and bending conduit, hauling material, and cleaning up job sites are physical tasks in cluttered, variable spaces that no current robot handles at cost. The exposure isn't AI doing the work — it's that helpers hold no license, sign nothing, and own no decisions, so their pay and headcount depend entirely on how many licensed electricians the market employs and how much prefab/modular assembly moves labor off-site. This is a stepping-stone title, and the whole value of the job is whether you convert it into a journeyman card.", "outlook": "The physical work is safe for a decade, but wages stay capped and demand tracks construction cycles unless you convert the helper role into a licensed journeyman ticket.", "what_would_raise_it": { "levers": [ { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "State electrical-trainee registration plus enforced apprentice-to-journeyman ratio rules (Washington's 01/02 trainee cards, Oregon's and Wisconsin's ratio statutes) make an unlicensed helper a legally required, countable body on the crew rather than optional labor — a contractor cannot staff up licensed hours without them. Broader adoption or tightened enforcement of ratio rules, plus IRA/CHIPS prevailing-wage rules (Treasury final rule, June 2024) requiring 12.5-15% of total labor hours be performed by registered apprentices on tax-credit-eligible projects, converts helper headcount into a compliance line item.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 5 }, { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "Project Labor Agreements on federal construction over $35M (FAR rule effective Jan 2024) and state/utility-scale solar PLAs that specify registered-apprentice utilization percentages and prohibit substituting unregistered helpers — if these survive litigation and expand to data-center and transmission buildout, apprentice slots become contractually mandated.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "task_resistance", "change": "Task-mix shift as prefab absorbs the routine tier: new-build repetitive rough-in (identical multifamily units, straight conduit runs, panel assemblies) moves to controlled off-site shops, leaving field helper work concentrated in retrofit, service upgrades, EV-charger and panel-swap work in existing occupied buildings where no two walls are the same. The remaining tier is genuinely less mechanizable than the tier being removed.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 2 }, { "dimension": "judgment_accountability", "change": "Jurisdictions that let registered trainees perform and initial specific documented steps under indirect rather than direct supervision — e.g., rules permitting a second-year trainee to work unsupervised on limited residential tasks, or utility interconnection paperwork requiring a named installer on record for each EVSE/PV commissioning — attach an identifiable person to a consequential call.", "plausibility": "unlikely", "would_add": 2 } ], "ceiling_note": "Trust premium has no realistic route: customers buy the licensed contractor's name and never learn who pulled the wire, and no plausible mechanism makes a homeowner pay extra for a human helper specifically. Also note the liability levers protect the slot, not the person — every one of them is conditioned on the helper being a *registered* apprentice or trainee, so an unregistered helper captures none of the gain. Embodiment is the current floor of this score and prefab pushes it down, not up." }, "adjudication": null, "employment_history": { "points": [ { "y": 2017, "emp": 72580, "wage": 30540 }, { "y": 2018, "emp": 75970, "wage": 31410 }, { "y": 2019, "emp": 79260, "wage": 32830 }, { "y": 2020, "emp": 73920, "wage": 33840 }, { "y": 2021, "emp": 72150, "wage": 36360 }, { "y": 2022, "emp": 71000, "wage": 37070 }, { "y": 2023, "emp": 68670, "wage": 38340 }, { "y": 2024, "emp": 64440, "wage": 39890 }, { "y": 2025, "emp": 63630, "wage": 42670 } ], "from": 2017, "to": 2025, "change_pct": -12.3, "comparable_from": 2019, "spans_soc_revision": true }, "pivots": [ { "slug": "solar-photovoltaic-installers", "title": "Solar Photovoltaic Installers", "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 65, "median_wage": 53140, "overlap": 86, "skills_to_close": [ "Systems Analysis", "Systems Evaluation", "Technology Design", "Management of Personnel Resources" ] }, { "slug": "riggers", "title": "Riggers", "verdict": "SAFE", "risk_resistance": 70, "median_wage": 62640, "overlap": 83, "skills_to_close": [ "Operation and Control", "Reading Comprehension", "Management of Personnel Resources", "Operations Analysis" ] }, { "slug": "plumbers-pipefitters-and-steamfitters", "title": "Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Steamfitters", "verdict": "SAFE", "risk_resistance": 86, "median_wage": 63800, "overlap": 83, "skills_to_close": [ "Installation", "Systems Analysis", "Systems Evaluation", "Technology Design" ] } ], "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms" }