{ "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register", "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/inspectors-testers-sorters-samplers-and-weighers/", "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": "Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, and Weighers", "soc_code": "51-9061", "category": "Production", "us_employment": 597370, "median_annual_wage": 48570 }, "verdict": "COOKED", "risk_resistance": 33, "contested": true, "near_boundary": true, "dimensions": { "task_resistance": 7, "embodiment": 11, "liability_shield": 4, "trust_premium": 4, "judgment_accountability": 7 }, "reasoning": { "task_resistance": "At 7 rather than 4, the pass/fail visual scan, caliper and micrometer readings, and grade sorting are already being done by in-line cameras and laser gauges on the same lines you work, but first-article layouts, fixturing odd geometries, and chasing an intermittent defect back to a machine still take a person walking the floor — that residue is what keeps it out of the bottom band.", "embodiment": "An 11 reflects that you are physically lifting, rotating, and mounting parts, running CMM setups, pulling samples from tanks and totes, and standing at a line all shift — but it happens inside a lit, climate-managed plant with fixed stations and known part families, not on a roof or in a trench, so it stops well short of the uncontrolled-environment band.", "liability_shield": "A 4 is right because most inspection jobs post as high-school-plus-training with no state licence: your sign-off on an inspection record is countersigned into the QMS and the legal exposure lands on the company's quality manager and PE-stamped drawings, and even ASNT Level II NDT or ASQ CQI credentials are employer- or program-issued preferences, not a personal liability that follows you.", "trust_premium": "At 4, your output is a stamped ticket, a dimensional report, or a lot disposition that the next station consumes without knowing who produced it; the buyer trusts the AS9100 or ISO certificate and the audit trail, not you by name, and shifting inspectors between lines and shifts costs the customer nothing.", "judgment_accountability": "A 7 acknowledges genuine calls — accept-with-deviation, borderline cosmetic defects, when to stop the line, whether a sample is representative — but those decisions are bounded by written specs, control limits, and AQL sampling tables, and anything expensive escalates to an MRB or engineering disposition rather than resting on you." }, "rationale": "The core of this job — visual defect checks, dimensional gauging, sorting by grade, weighing, logging results into quality systems — is exactly what machine vision, in-line sensors, and automated gauging already do faster and more consistently, and the factory floor is the most controlled, automation-friendly physical environment that exists. Physical handling of parts and fixtures still needs hands, which is the main thing holding the number up. The surviving tier is narrow: NDT-certified technicians, calibration and metrology specialists, and inspectors who own nonconformance dispositions, supplier audits, and root-cause investigations rather than pass/fail calls.", "outlook": "Headcount keeps eroding as in-line vision and automated gauging spread through mid-size plants, while a smaller, better-paid core of NDT, metrology, and quality-engineering roles absorbs the judgment work.", "what_would_raise_it": { "levers": [ { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "Certification regimes that require a named, personally-accountable human signature on inspection records: ASNT/NAS-410 Level II/III NDT certification already requires a certified individual to sign radiographic/UT interpretations, and FAA 14 CFR Part 43/145 requires an authorized person to sign airworthiness inspection releases. If FDA (21 CFR 820 QSR harmonization to ISO 13485) or FAA explicitly bar unreviewed automated vision results as the sole record of conformance — i.e. require a certified inspector to countersign machine-vision dispositions — this rises materially for the aerospace/medical/pressure-vessel subset, less for general production.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 5 }, { "dimension": "task_resistance", "change": "Genuine two-tier structure: as in-line vision and CMM automation absorb pass/fail gauging, the residual job becomes nonconformance disposition, MRB participation, gage R&R and measurement-systems analysis, supplier corrective-action audits, and root-cause investigation — tasks that require reconciling conflicting evidence and negotiating with suppliers. Watch for BLS/employer job postings shifting from 'quality inspector' to 'quality engineer/technician' with CQI/CQE credential requirements. Composition effect, not capability gain: the count falls while the surviving role's resistance rises.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "judgment_accountability", "change": "Formal ownership of dispositions under AS9100/IATF 16949 Material Review Board authority, and named-auditor accountability under supplier audit schemes. If OEM supplier-quality contracts or a post-incident regulatory response (e.g. following an aerospace or medical-device recall) name an individual inspector as the accountable signatory for use-as-is/rework/scrap decisions and root-cause closure, this rises for that subset.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "embodiment", "change": "Field and in-situ inspection work that resists fixturing: weld and pipeline NDT in refineries, bridge and tank inspection, in-service turbine borescope work, agricultural grading at variable receiving points. If demand shifts toward these unstructured settings — e.g. sustained infrastructure inspection spend under IIJA bridge/pipeline programs — the embodiment-heavy share of the occupation grows even as factory-floor roles shrink.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 3 } ], "ceiling_note": "Trust premium is omitted: buyers of inspection are OEMs and regulators who want defensible records, not human hands, and no realistic market pays extra for a human eye over a calibrated sensor. The levers above apply almost entirely to the certified NDT/metrology/supplier-audit minority; for the majority doing visual sorting, gauging, and weighing on a line, no credible route raises any dimension, and the honest ceiling for the occupation as a whole stays well below 50." }, "adjudication": { "method": "two independent runs disagreed; merge is rounding-dependent", "outcome": "unresolved — published score left unchanged", "run_totals": [ 33, 36 ], "run_verdicts": [ "COOKED", "EXPOSED" ] }, "employment_history": { "points": [ { "y": 2017, "emp": 537500, "wage": 37340 }, { "y": 2018, "emp": 557510, "wage": 38250 }, { "y": 2019, "emp": 576950, "wage": 39140 }, { "y": 2020, "emp": 549200, "wage": 40460 }, { "y": 2021, "emp": 551380, "wage": 38580 }, { "y": 2022, "emp": 579740, "wage": 43900 }, { "y": 2023, "emp": 584630, "wage": 45850 }, { "y": 2024, "emp": 591180, "wage": 47460 }, { "y": 2025, "emp": 597370, "wage": 48570 } ], "from": 2017, "to": 2025, "change_pct": 11.1, "comparable_from": 2019, "spans_soc_revision": true }, "pivots": [ { "slug": "welders-cutters-solderers-and-brazers", "title": "Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers", "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 62, "median_wage": 53750, "overlap": 74, "skills_to_close": [ "Installation" ] }, { "slug": "metal-refining-furnace-operators-and-tenders", "title": "Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tenders", "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 43, "median_wage": 54430, "overlap": 67, "skills_to_close": [ "Equipment Maintenance", "Repairing", "Operations Monitoring", "Operation and Control" ] }, { "slug": "refractory-materials-repairers-except-brickmasons", "title": "Refractory Materials Repairers, Except Brickmasons", "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 65, "median_wage": 61290, "overlap": 61, "skills_to_close": [ "Repairing", "Equipment Maintenance", "Troubleshooting", "Equipment Selection" ] } ], "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms" }