{
  "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register",
  "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/riggers/",
  "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": "Riggers",
    "soc_code": "49-9096",
    "category": "Trades",
    "us_employment": 22530,
    "median_annual_wage": 62640
  },
  "verdict": "SAFE",
  "risk_resistance": 70,
  "contested": false,
  "near_boundary": false,
  "dimensions": {
    "task_resistance": 17,
    "embodiment": 19,
    "liability_shield": 10,
    "trust_premium": 9,
    "judgment_accountability": 15
  },
  "reasoning": {
    "task_resistance": "The load chart math and lift-plan paperwork are genuinely computable, but choking a turbine shell with a basket hitch in a congested engine room, feeling the sling take tension, and reading the load's drift as it clears an obstruction have no digital substitute — that's why this sits at 17 rather than mid-teens.",
    "embodiment": "Riggers work aloft on steel, in shipyard drydocks, on catwalks above film stages, and in the fall zone of suspended loads, hand-tightening shackle pins and repositioning tag lines in weather and noise — the only reason it isn't a 20 is the fraction of time spent in the shop inspecting and logging gear.",
    "liability_shield": "Most states require no rigger licence, but ASME B30.9 sling inspection duties, OSHA 1926.1425 signal-person qualification, and NCCCO Rigger Level I/II certification are contractually mandatory on most union steel and refinery jobs — so there's a real credential gate, just not a statutory personal-liability one, hence 10 not 15.",
    "trust_premium": "The crane operator has to trust your hand signals and your call on where the pick goes, and superintendents ask for specific riggers by name on critical lifts, but the client buying the erected building never learns your name — the relationship is with the crew, not the customer.",
    "judgment_accountability": "When the sling angle looks wrong or a wire rope shows a broken strand mid-shift, the rigger calls the stop and eats the schedule delay; that go/no-go authority over a load that can kill people below is why this is 15 rather than a procedural mid-single-digit."
  },
  "rationale": "Riggers select and attach slings, shackles, and chokers to loads, judge center of gravity and sling angles on the fly, and signal crane operators in shipyards, on steel erection sites, and above film stages — none of that is screen work. AI can compute load charts, generate lift plans, and cross-check capacity math, but a human still has to inspect the wire rope for broken strands, rig the pick in a congested space, and call the stop. The main automatable slice is the paperwork tier: lift plan drafting, load calculation, and inspection logging.",
  "outlook": "Employment holds roughly steady through the 2030s; the paperwork and lift-planning side gets software-assisted while the hands-on rigging and critical-lift judgment stays fully human.",
  "what_would_raise_it": {
    "levers": [
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "OSHA's cranes-and-derricks rule (29 CFR 1926.1404/1425) already requires a 'qualified rigger' for assembly/disassembly and workers under suspended loads, but 'qualified' is employer-designated, not licensed. A move to third-party certification of record — e.g. states adopting NCCCO Rigger Level I/II or an ASME B30.9-linked credential as a statutory requirement, the way California and several cities license crane operators — plus a named-rigger signature line on the critical-lift plan, would put a specific person's credential and personal liability on each pick.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 5
      },
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "Owner/insurer contract terms (e.g. marine and builder's-risk underwriters, or nuclear/refinery turnaround specs) requiring that any AI-generated lift plan be reviewed and signed by a certified rigger or lift director before the pick proceeds — mirroring the engineer-of-record countersignature now common on critical lifts over 75% of chart capacity.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "task_resistance",
        "change": "Genuine two-tier occupation: if lift-plan drafting, load-chart math, sling-angle calculation and inspection logging are absorbed by software, the residual job is all field judgment — center-of-gravity estimation on an unmarked fabrication, wire-rope condemnation calls, congested-space rigging, stop authority. The measured task mix shifts toward the tier no model touches.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 2
      },
      {
        "dimension": "judgment_accountability",
        "change": "Formal designation of a 'lift director' role with documented stop-work authority — already in ASME B30.5 and adopted in many refinery/petrochem and shipyard safety programs — assigned to the rigger rather than the superintendent, making the stop call an owned, logged decision rather than an informal one.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "trust_premium",
        "change": "Narrow route only: entertainment rigging, where IATSE local agreements and venue insurance require named union riggers for overhead work above performers and audiences, and producers pay a premium for a specific crew rather than lowest bid. This does not generalize to industrial or shipyard rigging, where the buyer is a GC purchasing headcount.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 2
      }
    ],
    "ceiling_note": "Embodiment is effectively maxed at 19 and task_resistance near-ceiling; the realistic upside is concentrated in liability_shield, which is low mainly because 'qualified rigger' is an employer designation rather than a license. Even a full certification-of-record regime is a 5-8 point total move, not a transformation — and it would raise the score for certified riggers while widening the gap for the large uncertified helper tier."
  },
  "adjudication": null,
  "employment_history": {
    "points": [
      {
        "y": 2017,
        "emp": 21000,
        "wage": 48580
      },
      {
        "y": 2018,
        "emp": 20970,
        "wage": 50370
      },
      {
        "y": 2019,
        "emp": 23000,
        "wage": 50860
      },
      {
        "y": 2020,
        "emp": 21700,
        "wage": 50850
      },
      {
        "y": 2021,
        "emp": 17980,
        "wage": 48130
      },
      {
        "y": 2022,
        "emp": 19260,
        "wage": 54680
      },
      {
        "y": 2023,
        "emp": 23870,
        "wage": 56220
      },
      {
        "y": 2024,
        "emp": 24190,
        "wage": 62060
      },
      {
        "y": 2025,
        "emp": 22530,
        "wage": 62640
      }
    ],
    "from": 2017,
    "to": 2025,
    "change_pct": 7.3,
    "comparable_from": 2019,
    "spans_soc_revision": true
  },
  "pivots": [],
  "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms"
}