{ "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register", "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/terrazzo-workers-and-finishers/", "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": "Terrazzo Workers and Finishers", "soc_code": "47-2053", "category": "Construction", "us_employment": 1180, "median_annual_wage": 76170 }, "verdict": "SAFE", "risk_resistance": 68, "contested": false, "near_boundary": false, "dimensions": { "task_resistance": 19, "embodiment": 20, "liability_shield": 5, "trust_premium": 12, "judgment_accountability": 12 }, "reasoning": { "task_resistance": "Setting brass or zinc divider strips true to a chalk line over an uneven slab, seeding marble chips by hand until coverage reads uniform, then coming back after cure to rough-grind, grout the pinholes and fine-polish — each step is judged by eye and touch on a surface that never repeats, which is why 19 rather than a mixed 12: even the layout you get handed as a shop drawing still has to be adapted to the actual floor.", "embodiment": "You are on knees and elbows on a green slab, hauling 50-lb bags and epoxy pails, running a 200-lb planetary grinder in silica dust and wet slurry, working around other trades' scaffolds and cords in a building with no HVAC yet — there is no screen-only fraction of this job to discount.", "liability_shield": "No state licenses terrazzo work; you may carry an OSHA 10/30 card, silica-exposure training under 1926.1153 and maybe an NTMA-affiliated apprenticeship certificate, but the bond and the warranty sit with the flooring contractor, and a failed pour is a callback for the company, not a personal license action — hence 5, not 0.", "trust_premium": "Repeat work comes from GCs and architects who have seen your seeded-aggregate samples and know your terrazzo won't crack or telegraph the divider strips, and on decorative logo and pattern work the owner often wants the same crew back — but the specification and the low bid still decide most jobs, which keeps this at 12 rather than 16.", "judgment_accountability": "You decide whether the slab moisture and crack pattern require a membrane or more control joints, how much resin to catalyze for the shop temperature, and when to stop grinding before you expose too much matrix — irreversible calls on a floor that cannot be lifted, but made inside NTMA and manufacturer specs and with a foreman to back you, so 12 rather than 16." }, "rationale": "Mixing epoxy and cementitious matrices to spec, setting divider strips to a layout line, pouring, seeding aggregate, then grinding, grouting and polishing on your knees in an active job site is work no current robot performs at cost. The only AI-touchable slice is the office layer: bidding, material takeoffs, scheduling and shop drawings for decorative patterns. Real threats to this trade are construction demand cycles, prefabricated terrazzo panels and a shrinking apprentice pipeline — not language models.", "outlook": "Employment stays tiny and cyclical, tied to airport, hospital and school construction budgets, but AI takes almost none of the actual craft — the workers who add contractor licensure and restoration specialty will be the ones setting prices.", "what_would_raise_it": { "levers": [ { "dimension": "trust_premium", "change": "Historic-preservation and restoration work already commands a hand-craft premium: if more state historic tax credit programs and federal Secretary of the Interior standards reviews explicitly require in-situ poured terrazzo restoration by trained craftspeople rather than prefabricated panel replacement, the human-made distinction gets written into the specification, not just the sales pitch. Also visible: NTMA (National Terrazzo & Mosaic Association) contractor certification being named in architect specs, which buyers pay a premium to satisfy.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "Terrazzo has no personal license. The realistic route is indirect: epoxy resin matrices are subject to VOC and isocyanate handling rules, and if OSHA's respirable crystalline silica standard (1926.1153) enforcement on grinding and polishing tightens to require a named competent person with documented exposure-control responsibility on each pour-and-grind operation — the way lead and asbestos abatement already require certified supervisors — a person becomes legally required on site and personally exposed to citation.", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "judgment_accountability", "change": "Substrate and moisture calls are already the trade's high-consequence judgment: whether a slab's moisture vapor emission rate and crack pattern warrant a divider strip layout change, a sand cushion versus bonded system, or refusing the pour. If manufacturer warranties on epoxy matrix systems (Terrazzo & Marble Supply, Master Terrazzo) increasingly condition coverage on the installer's documented sign-off of substrate acceptance — as flooring adhesive warranties already do — the installer owns a consequential ambiguous call in writing.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "task_resistance", "change": "If prefab panel adoption takes the flat, repetitive open-floor pours, the residual field work is disproportionately stairs, cove bases, curved and radius layouts, tie-ins to existing terrazzo and restoration grinding — the tier no template or panel handles. This raises task resistance as a share of remaining work while shrinking headcount, so it is not good news for the occupation's size.", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 1 } ], "ceiling_note": "Already 68 with task_resistance and embodiment near maximum; the headroom is only in the three institutional dimensions and totals maybe 10-12 points. The binding constraint is not AI at all — it is 1,180 workers, cyclical commercial construction demand, panel prefabrication, and apprentice supply. A higher register score would not change any of those." }, "adjudication": null, "employment_history": { "points": [ { "y": 2017, "emp": 2630, "wage": 40590 }, { "y": 2018, "emp": 2730, "wage": 42500 }, { "y": 2019, "emp": 2970, "wage": 52180 }, { "y": 2020, "emp": 2970, "wage": 51430 }, { "y": 2021, "emp": 2640, "wage": 48680 }, { "y": 2022, "emp": 1460, "wage": 52330 }, { "y": 2023, "emp": 1460, "wage": 48900 }, { "y": 2024, "emp": 1450, "wage": 57260 }, { "y": 2025, "emp": 1180, "wage": 76170 } ], "from": 2017, "to": 2025, "change_pct": -55.1, "comparable_from": 2019, "spans_soc_revision": true }, "pivots": [], "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms" }