{
  "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register",
  "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/weighers-measurers-checkers-and-samplers-recordkeeping/",
  "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": "Weighers, Measurers, Checkers, and Samplers, Recordkeeping",
    "soc_code": "43-5111",
    "category": "Office",
    "us_employment": 53300,
    "median_annual_wage": 46380
  },
  "verdict": "COOKED",
  "risk_resistance": 21,
  "contested": false,
  "near_boundary": false,
  "dimensions": {
    "task_resistance": 4,
    "embodiment": 10,
    "liability_shield": 2,
    "trust_premium": 2,
    "judgment_accountability": 3
  },
  "reasoning": {
    "task_resistance": "Reading a scale display, keying the number into a WMS, and comparing it to a bill of lading is a data-capture loop that in-line checkweighers and scanner-gated conveyors already run at line speed, which is why this sits at 4 rather than 10 — the exceptions (retare a drum, recount a broken pallet) are minutes of an eight-hour shift, not the shift itself.",
    "embodiment": "A 10 reflects that the sampling and tallying happen on a dock, in a warehouse aisle, or at a rail siding — climbing onto a car, scooping grain, cutting a bale, walking a yard in weather — but it is a fixed, mapped facility with known load types, not an uncontrolled field, so a scale pit and a scanner arch cover most of the ground a person now walks.",
    "liability_shield": "Nothing here requires a licence: state weights-and-measures law licenses the sealed device and the service technician who certifies it, not the person reading it, and when a shipment is short the carrier or shipper eats it under the bill of lading — hence 2, with the point or two reflecting only that certified-scale operators in grain or scrap sometimes have to be named on a ticket.",
    "trust_premium": "A 2 is right because the customer sees a weight ticket, a count sheet, or a line in the receiving report — the driver waiting at the gate does not care which checker keyed it, and no buyer specifies a person by name the way they specify a certified scale.",
    "judgment_accountability": "Tolerances, sampling frequency, and the reject threshold are written into the spec or the QC plan before you clock in; the call you own is \"flag it and tell the supervisor,\" which is why this is a 3 — real ambiguity gets escalated to quality, purchasing, or the plant manager rather than settled on the dock."
  },
  "rationale": "The core loop — weigh a load, record the figure, compare it against the order or spec, flag discrepancies — is exactly what in-line scales, barcode/RFID scanners, and machine-vision inspection stations already do continuously and without transcription errors. What keeps this role alive at all is the physical part: physically pulling samples from a rail car or tote, handling odd or damaged goods, and being on the dock when the system disagrees with reality. There is no license, no signature requirement, and almost no discretion at the median, so the automation path is capital spending rather than any legal or trust barrier.",
  "outlook": "Employment keeps eroding as automated weighing, scanning, and vision inspection spread through warehouses and plants; the survivors are the ones tied to physical sampling, instrument calibration, and exception investigation.",
  "what_would_raise_it": {
    "levers": [
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "Legal-metrology and custody-transfer regimes are the one real route: NIST Handbook 44 / state weights-and-measures programs already require certified weighmasters in some states (e.g. California's Division of Measurement Standards licensed weighmaster certificates, which carry a personal signature on the certified weight ticket used in commerce and court). If state boards extend certified-weighmaster signature requirements to automated in-line scale output — i.e. a licensed human must attest that the unattended system's ticket is valid — the role gains a genuine signature it does not now have at the median. Similar hooks exist in USDA AMS official sampling/grading (licensed samplers under the US Grain Standards Act) and in EPA/DEA chain-of-custody sampling.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 6
      },
      {
        "dimension": "task_resistance",
        "change": "Genuine two-tier split: if in-line scales, RFID and vision inspection absorb the routine count-and-record tier, what remains is exception work — reconciling system-versus-reality disputes on the dock, damaged/nonconforming loads, calibration drift investigation, chain-of-custody sampling that must be defensible. Watch for job postings retitled toward 'quality/metrology technician' or 'calibration and exception coordinator' with ASQ or NIST-traceable calibration credentials attached. The headcount falls sharply either way; the residual job is harder.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 4
      },
      {
        "dimension": "judgment_accountability",
        "change": "If regulated-commodity sampling (grain grading, hazardous-waste characterization under RCRA, pharmaceutical incoming-materials sampling under 21 CFR 211.84) is where surviving positions concentrate, the sampler owns a consequential accept/reject call under ambiguity with an audit trail. FDA Part 211 already names the person who approves or rejects components; that is a named accountability the median dock role lacks.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 4
      }
    ],
    "ceiling_note": "Even with a weighmaster signature requirement, the ceiling is low — the licensing exists in a minority of states, covers a minority of transactions, and one licensed signer can attest to output from many unattended stations, so the credential concentrates rather than preserves employment. There is no realistic trust-premium route: no buyer pays extra for a human to have read a scale."
  },
  "adjudication": null,
  "employment_history": {
    "points": [
      {
        "y": 2017,
        "emp": 72630,
        "wage": 30180
      },
      {
        "y": 2018,
        "emp": 65830,
        "wage": 32310
      },
      {
        "y": 2019,
        "emp": 60920,
        "wage": 35040
      },
      {
        "y": 2020,
        "emp": 57960,
        "wage": 36650
      },
      {
        "y": 2021,
        "emp": 54760,
        "wage": 37610
      },
      {
        "y": 2022,
        "emp": 52610,
        "wage": 39950
      },
      {
        "y": 2023,
        "emp": 51250,
        "wage": 43270
      },
      {
        "y": 2024,
        "emp": 49720,
        "wage": 45650
      },
      {
        "y": 2025,
        "emp": 53300,
        "wage": 46380
      }
    ],
    "from": 2017,
    "to": 2025,
    "change_pct": -26.6,
    "comparable_from": 2019,
    "spans_soc_revision": true
  },
  "pivots": [
    {
      "slug": "log-graders-and-scalers",
      "title": "Log Graders and Scalers",
      "verdict": "EXPOSED",
      "risk_resistance": 41,
      "median_wage": 46330,
      "overlap": 62,
      "skills_to_close": [
        "Operation and Control"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms"
}