{
  "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register",
  "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/manufactured-building-and-mobile-home-installers/",
  "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": "Manufactured Building and Mobile Home Installers",
    "soc_code": "49-9095",
    "category": "Trades",
    "us_employment": 3020,
    "median_annual_wage": 45990
  },
  "verdict": "SAFE",
  "risk_resistance": 68,
  "contested": false,
  "near_boundary": false,
  "dimensions": {
    "task_resistance": 18,
    "embodiment": 19,
    "liability_shield": 12,
    "trust_premium": 9,
    "judgment_accountability": 10
  },
  "reasoning": {
    "task_resistance": "Crawling under a 16-by-76 box to shim a pier that's a quarter-inch low, torquing marriage-line lag bolts through misaligned rim joists, and dry-fitting a sewer crossover in a 30-inch crawl space are the day's core work — an 18 rather than 20 only because permit packets, HUD data plate paperwork, and set-crew scheduling are already moving to software.",
    "embodiment": "Every task happens on an unprepared lot in whatever weather the delivery day brings — mud, frost heave, slope, tight setbacks, a toter backing a half-section into place — and a 19 reflects that even the measuring and leveling is done by hand with a transit or water level under the frame, not from a screen.",
    "liability_shield": "Most states require a licensed or HUD-certified installer whose license number goes on the installation certificate, and a failed anchoring or leveling inspection traces back to that individual — it sits at 12 rather than 16 because the license is state-issued with reciprocity gaps, the manufacturer's setup manual dictates most of the method, and the retailer or GC often carries the bond.",
    "trust_premium": "Repeat work comes from retailers and community operators who call the crew they know will set clean and pass inspection first time, but the homeowner meets the installer once for a day or two — a 9, not a 14, because the relationship is with the dealer, not the person living in the house.",
    "judgment_accountability": "Real calls get made on site — whether soil bearing supports the pier spacing in the manual, whether to add blocking under a marriage wall opening, whether to refuse a set on saturated ground — but the HUD Model Installation Standards and the manufacturer's manual prescribe pier heights, anchor spacing, and torque, which caps this at 10."
  },
  "rationale": "The work is setting piers and blocking, leveling and shimming multi-section homes, bolting and sealing the marriage line, anchoring to tiedowns, and connecting water, sewer, gas and electrical crossovers — all done outdoors on uneven, muddy, variable sites that no current robot handles. AI can absorb the paperwork around the job (permit forms, HUD installation checklists, site drawings, scheduling, warranty claims), which is a real but small slice of the day. Most states license or certify manufactured home installers under HUD's federal installation standards, and the installer's signature is what closes out inspection.",
  "outlook": "Demand tracks affordable-housing production, which is rising; the setup crew stays human for the next decade while the office and permitting side of the business thins out.",
  "what_would_raise_it": {
    "levers": [
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "States adopting HUD's Model Installation Program more strictly — requiring the licensed installer of record to personally sign the installation certification and carry a surety bond/insurance covering leveling and anchoring failures (as Florida, Texas TDHCA and North Carolina already do). If more states move from 'certification' to bonded license-of-record with personal liability for post-storm anchor failures, this rises.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 4
      },
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "Post-hurricane insurer or FEMA requirement that anchoring and tiedown work be certified by a licensed installer or engineer before a policy is written or a disaster-replacement unit is occupied — an extension of Florida wind-mitigation inspection practice to installation sign-off.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 2
      },
      {
        "dimension": "judgment_accountability",
        "change": "Growth of the site-diagnosis half of the job — soil bearing capacity calls, frost-depth and pier design decisions on marginal lots, deciding whether a pad needs engineering. If HUD or state programs require the installer to document a soil/site determination rather than default to a generic pier plan, the consequential-call share of the role grows.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "task_resistance",
        "change": "As AI absorbs permits, HUD checklists, warranty claims and scheduling, the residual day is nearly all field judgment and hands-on setting — a task-mix shift, not a new rule. Ceiling effect limits the gain since the score is already 18.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 1
      },
      {
        "dimension": "trust_premium",
        "change": "Retailer/manufacturer warranty programs that void the structural warranty unless installation is done by a manufacturer-trained, named crew (Clayton and Champion already condition warranties on approved installers). Buyers then pay specifically for the approved human crew.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 2
      }
    ],
    "ceiling_note": "task_resistance and embodiment are already near maximum; there is essentially no headroom there. The realistic movement is liability and the judgment tier. Trust premium is structurally capped — buyers of manufactured homes are price-sensitive and rarely choose a crew by name; the premium lives with the retailer, not the installer."
  },
  "adjudication": null,
  "employment_history": {
    "points": [
      {
        "y": 2017,
        "emp": 2750,
        "wage": 30960
      },
      {
        "y": 2018,
        "emp": 2920,
        "wage": 32040
      },
      {
        "y": 2019,
        "emp": 2810,
        "wage": 33890
      },
      {
        "y": 2020,
        "emp": 2900,
        "wage": 35120
      },
      {
        "y": 2021,
        "emp": 3530,
        "wage": 36360
      },
      {
        "y": 2022,
        "emp": 3630,
        "wage": 36820
      },
      {
        "y": 2023,
        "emp": 2910,
        "wage": 38980
      },
      {
        "y": 2024,
        "emp": 2610,
        "wage": 41080
      },
      {
        "y": 2025,
        "emp": 3020,
        "wage": 45990
      }
    ],
    "from": 2017,
    "to": 2025,
    "change_pct": 9.8,
    "comparable_from": 2019,
    "spans_soc_revision": true
  },
  "pivots": [],
  "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms"
}