Chemist
| Median wage (USD) | 91240 |
|---|---|
| Projected employment growth (%) | 7 |
| AI exposure (%) | 40 |
| Maximum exposure (%) | 52 |
| Source | eloundou |
| What AI changes in this occupation | Drafting a technical report, compiling and analysing test data, interpreting a spectrum, searching the literature and proposing a synthesis route or a formulation now take minutes from the raw data: these are exactly the tasks the O*NET profile ranks among the occupation's most important — develop and improve products, formulas, processes or analytical methods (80 out of 100), analyse organic or inorganic compounds by chromatography, spectroscopy or spectrophotometry (77), write technical papers, reports and standards (73), compile and analyse test information to diagnose a malfunction (71) — and the desk half of the job is the first to be delegated. Ordering supplies and chemicals (61) follows the same path. BLS projects +7% for the group that carries this occupation — chemists and materials scientists — between 2025 and 2035, growth it calls "much faster than average". Per code, the figure is more modest: O*NET shows "faster than average (5% to 6%)" for 19-2031.00 alone, 84,900 chemists in 2025 and 5,900 openings over the decade, mostly from replacement. A degree gates entry — BLS puts the typical entry-level education at a bachelor's degree, O*NET places the profile in Job Zone Four and 30% of respondents say a doctorate is required — and an occupation whose administrative half automates while the number of jobs grows only moderately is played out on specialisation (materials, batteries, pharmaceuticals, analytical methods, regulation), not on volume. The bench remains the core of the job: 95% of O*NET respondents work indoors in an environmentally controlled setting every day, 80% wear common protective equipment every day — glasses, gloves, safety shoes —, 30% are exposed to contaminants daily and 69% rate being exact or highly accurate as extremely important. Preparing a solution, a compound or a reagent, running a spectrometer, maintaining and troubleshooting an instrument, conducting a quality-control test, evaluating a safety procedure and answering for the integrity of the signed result cannot be delegated — and that is precisely the share the Eloundou study leaves untouched (52% at most). |
| Key skills | Organic, inorganic and analytical chemistry (composition, structure, reactions) · instrumental methods: chromatography (GC, HPLC), spectroscopy (IR, UV-visible, NMR), mass spectrometry, spectrophotometry · sample, solution, compound and reagent preparation · formulation chemistry and product development · design of experiments and process optimisation · quality control, metrology and good laboratory practice (GLP, ISO 17025) · laboratory safety and regulatory compliance (WHMIS/OSHA, REACH, FDA) · statistical analysis of measurement data and chemometrics · instrument maintenance, qualification and troubleshooting · scientific and technical writing (reports, standards, papers) · literature and prior-art searching · generative AI tools for spectrum interpretation, synthesis-route search and report drafting |
| Courses to get ahead | Introduction to Molecular Spectroscopy · Coursera (University of Manchester) · 4 modules, about 12 hours in total · 92 · The course that attacks the occupation's most exposed technical task — analysing compounds to determine their structure by spectroscopy (77 out of 100) — and its second most important one. It covers infrared, ultraviolet-visible and nuclear magnetic resonance, with laboratory demonstrations: this is the skill that separates a chemist whose interpretation is delegated from one who runs it and knows when the machine is wrong. Writing in the Sciences · Coursera (Stanford Online) · 8 weeks at 3-5 hours a week · 91 · Writing technical reports and standards (73 out of 100) is the profile's most directly delegable task: a first draft can be generated, the ability to say what the data prove cannot. Stanford's course works on the scientific sentence, the structure of a paper and the art of cutting — what remains when AI produces version one, and what separates an enforceable standard from a plausible text. AI For Everyone · Coursera (DeepLearning.AI) · 4 weeks at 2-3 hours a week · 85 · For deciding what is delegated and what is not: the course explains what generative AI can produce — spectrum interpretation, data analysis, a first draft of a report —, where it gets things wrong, and how to frame a use that does not lose the measurement trail. A chemist whose occupation is 40% exposed and 52% at most needs to know exactly what goes in their place. Materials Science: 10 Things Every Engineer Should Know · Coursera (University of California, Davis) · 5 weeks at 3 hours a week · 87 Drug Discovery · Coursera (University of California San Diego) · 3-4 hours a week · 84 Statistical Molecular Thermodynamics · Coursera (University of Minnesota) · 4-6 hours a week · 80 |
| Occupations to pivot toward | Chemical Engineer · 125040 · 6 · 35 Biochemist and Biophysicist · 127410 · 12 · 44 Materials Scientist · 117790 · 7 · 52 |
| Skills to acquire for the pivot | Eloundou measures the chemist's exposure at 40% (human β) and up to 52% (human ζ): developing and improving products, formulas, processes or analytical methods, analysing compounds by chromatography, spectroscopy or spectrophotometry, writing technical reports and standards, compiling and analysing test information and purchasing laboratory supplies are largely delegable, but preparing solutions, compounds and reagents, maintaining and troubleshooting instruments, conducting quality-control tests, inducing changes in composition with heat, light or catalysts and evaluating laboratory safety procedures remain human. Within the repository, 40 puts the chemist 54th of the ninety-eight occupations: fifty-three occupations have a higher exposure, forty-two a lower one, and two are tied with it (the pharmacist and the project manager); its nearest neighbours above are the graphic designer and the real estate agent (41), the pharmacy technician and the bill collector (43), below the occupational therapist (39), then the nurse, the physician and the biologist (38). Its ζ of 52 places it 62nd: sixty-one occupations have a higher ζ, thirty-five a lower one, only one is tied (the teacher), the closest being above the physician and the real estate agent (54) and the physiotherapist (55), below the pharmacist (51) and the delivery driver (50). The SOC code used is 19-2031.00 "Chemists": it is confirmed by the occupation's O*NET profile — which carries exactly that code and title, updated 2026, and the Bright Outlook flag — and by the Eloundou dataset, which carries a line titled exactly "Chemists" under that code: two sources that agree, nothing assumed. O*NET files under this profile job titles as different as analytical chemist, air quality chemist, forensic chemist, product development chemist or research and development chemist: the profile covers a family, not a single post. The GPT-4 self-rated series (β 38, ζ 68) is kept in expositionGpt4 and is not displayed, in line with the decision of 21 August 2026. BLS projects +7% for the group that carries this occupation — chemists and materials scientists, codes 19-2031 and 19-2032 together — between 2025 and 2035, growth it calls "much faster than average" and ties to demand from pharmaceuticals, materials and energy. O*NET gives the per-code detail for 19-2031.00 alone: 84,900 chemists in 2025, growth of "faster than average (5% to 6%)" and 5,900 openings over 2025-2035, mostly replacing people who transfer to other occupations or exit the labour force; the gap between the two figures comes from the BLS page covering two codes at once while O*NET separates them, and the BLS value is the one shown here, the OOH page being this card's reference source. A degree gates entry: O*NET places the occupation in Job Zone Four — considerable preparation, "most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree" — and O*NET respondents say a bachelor's degree is required 56% of the time, a doctorate 30% and a master's 10%; BLS, for its part, puts the typical entry-level education at a bachelor's degree, with no related work experience and no on-the-job training required. The work is laboratory and desk work: 95% of respondents work indoors in an environmentally controlled setting every day and 92% use e-mail daily, but 80% wear common protective equipment every day, 30% are exposed to contaminants daily and 33% are exposed to hazardous conditions at least once a month, 11% of them at least once a week: the ζ of 52% therefore does not describe a desk job, but one whose analytical and documentary half is transforming while the bench and responsibility for the result hold firm. This card's three pivots all appear in the related-occupations list O*NET publishes for chemists: the chemical engineer ($125,040, BLS growth "faster than average", published range 5% to 6%), the biochemist and biophysicist ($127,410, +12%) and the materials scientist ($117,790, +7%, BLS publishing both that median and that projection on the chemist's own page). The median salary shown is $91,240 a year, or $43.87 an hour: this is the May 2025 BLS figure, published on the Occupational Outlook Handbook page "Chemists and Materials Scientists" and reported identically by O*NET for profile 19-2031.00 — both sources give exactly the same median, with no divergence. For context, within the repository of ninety-eight occupations, $91,240 puts the chemist 34th: thirty-three occupations pay more, from the physician ($239,200) to the pharmacist ($137,480), and the repository's median salary is $72,590; its immediate neighbours are the web designer ($98,090), the nurse ($93,600), the university professor ($85,330) and the labour inspector ($83,910). This is a graduate professional's salary, not a technician's: BLS puts the typical entry-level education at a bachelor's degree and O*NET places the profile in Job Zone Four, but 30% of respondents say a doctorate is required and 10% a master's, which clearly separates the laboratory chemist from the holder of a graduate degree. Progression runs through specialisation — analytical chemistry and methods, materials and batteries, pharmaceuticals and process development, regulation (REACH, FDA) — and through the ability to carry a product-development project, which a standard or a safety data sheet drafted by AI does not replace. Every value on this card comes from a named source; only the task shares, derived from O*NET importance scores, the course scores, and the growth of the "chemical engineer" pivot (published BLS range 5% to 6%, value used: 6%) are editorial estimates, documented in _ponderation. |
| GPT-4 exposure — beta / zeta (%) | 38 · 68 |