{
  "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register",
  "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/helpers-extraction-workers/",
  "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--Extraction Workers",
    "soc_code": "47-5081",
    "category": "Construction",
    "us_employment": 6700,
    "median_annual_wage": 47730
  },
  "verdict": "EXPOSED",
  "risk_resistance": 43,
  "contested": false,
  "near_boundary": false,
  "dimensions": {
    "task_resistance": 15,
    "embodiment": 18,
    "liability_shield": 3,
    "trust_premium": 3,
    "judgment_accountability": 4
  },
  "reasoning": {
    "task_resistance": "Tramming drill steel to the face, swabbing and lubricating jackleg drills, tamping stemming into loaded blast holes and barring down loose rock are tasks no software touches — the 15 rather than 18 reflects that the helper tier is the first thing an autonomous drill rig or remote-operated loader eliminates outright, so the tasks resist digitisation but not mechanization.",
    "embodiment": "You work in pit benches, muck piles, and wellpad cellars where footing shifts, rock falls, and dust and diesel are ambient — an 18 rather than 20 only because some of the shift is spent in shops staging rods, bits, and blasting supplies rather than at the face.",
    "liability_shield": "MSHA Part 46/48 new-miner training and a state blaster's certificate held by the person you assist are the credentials in play; you hold none of them, and the licensed blaster-in-charge signs the shot report and owns the misfire, which puts this at 3 rather than 0 only because required safety training exists at all.",
    "trust_premium": "Nobody at the quarry office asks for you by name — you're dispatched to whichever crew is short a hand, and the 3 reflects only that a driller who trusts your signals and rod-handling will request you back on the same jackleg.",
    "judgment_accountability": "Hole depth, powder factor, delay pattern, and stemming length come off the blast design and the driller's call; your discretion is limited to noticing a bootleg or loose brow and calling it out, which is why this sits at 4 rather than 8."
  },
  "rationale": "Helping blasters and drill operators — hauling and setting up drill rods, cleaning and lubricating equipment, loading blast holes, hand-clearing rock and debris at mines, quarries, and well sites — is physical work in genuinely uncontrolled terrain that language models cannot touch. The real threat is not AI but mechanization: automated drill rigs, autonomous haulage, and remote-operated equipment strip out the helper tier first, and the occupation is already tiny (6,700 jobs) and cyclical with commodity prices. No license protects the role and the work is procedural under a supervisor's direction, so there is no judgment or accountability moat.",
  "outlook": "The work itself resists AI, but the job class shrinks as mines automate drilling and haulage; the workers who survive convert helper time into a blaster's license, a CDL, or an equipment-maintenance ticket.",
  "what_would_raise_it": {
    "levers": [
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "MSHA or ATF explosives rules requiring a second certified person physically present at the blast hole during loading and tie-in (Part 56/57 blaster-assistant certification with named responsibility on the shot report), rather than allowing a lone licensed blaster with remote-loading equipment",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 4
      },
      {
        "dimension": "task_resistance",
        "change": "Task-mix shift as automated rigs and autonomous haulage take routine hauling and tramming: the remaining helper work concentrates in non-routine tasks machines handle poorly — hand-clearing misfires and bootlegs, dealing with wet or collapsing holes, rigging in irregular benches and underground faces. Genuine two-tier structure exists here",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "embodiment",
        "change": "Growth of the remaining work in confined, unmapped, or degraded environments (underground metal mines, abandoned well plug-and-abandonment under the federal orphan-well program) where autonomous equipment has no reliable localization; fewer bench-quarry helper jobs, more unstructured-site ones",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 2
      },
      {
        "dimension": "judgment_accountability",
        "change": "Union or state contract language making the helper an authorized stop-work party — e.g. UMWA/USW safety-representative clauses or MSHA miner's-representative status extended so a helper can halt loading on observed hazard, with the call documented",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 3
      }
    ],
    "ceiling_note": "Even with all of these, the occupation stays exposed: the pressure is mechanization of the helper tier, not language models, and 6,700 cyclical jobs give the occupation almost no lobbying weight to secure a certification moat. No plausible route to a trust premium — buyers are mine operators purchasing tonnage, and no one pays extra for a human helper."
  },
  "adjudication": null,
  "employment_history": {
    "points": [
      {
        "y": 2017,
        "emp": 15280,
        "wage": 35710
      },
      {
        "y": 2018,
        "emp": 15930,
        "wage": 36350
      },
      {
        "y": 2019,
        "emp": 16700,
        "wage": 37120
      },
      {
        "y": 2020,
        "emp": 12740,
        "wage": 37860
      },
      {
        "y": 2021,
        "emp": 5980,
        "wage": 37760
      },
      {
        "y": 2022,
        "emp": 6910,
        "wage": 43110
      },
      {
        "y": 2023,
        "emp": 7360,
        "wage": 45520
      },
      {
        "y": 2024,
        "emp": 6720,
        "wage": 48400
      },
      {
        "y": 2025,
        "emp": 6700,
        "wage": 47730
      }
    ],
    "from": 2017,
    "to": 2025,
    "change_pct": -56.2,
    "comparable_from": 2019,
    "spans_soc_revision": true
  },
  "pivots": [
    {
      "slug": "septic-tank-servicers-and-sewer-pipe-cleaners",
      "title": "Septic Tank Servicers and Sewer Pipe Cleaners",
      "verdict": "SAFE",
      "risk_resistance": 67,
      "median_wage": 49880,
      "overlap": 86,
      "skills_to_close": [
        "Installation",
        "Operations Analysis"
      ]
    },
    {
      "slug": "rail-track-laying-and-maintenance-equipment-operators",
      "title": "Rail-Track Laying and Maintenance Equipment Operators",
      "verdict": "EXPOSED",
      "risk_resistance": 63,
      "median_wage": 70070,
      "overlap": 85,
      "skills_to_close": [
        "Operations Analysis"
      ]
    },
    {
      "slug": "earth-drillers-except-oil-and-gas",
      "title": "Earth Drillers, Except Oil and Gas",
      "verdict": "SAFE",
      "risk_resistance": 67,
      "median_wage": 60190,
      "overlap": 82,
      "skills_to_close": [
        "Operations Analysis",
        "Installation"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms"
}