Jeweler
CAD design software and 3D-printed wax models are real and widely adopted in this trade, but they only replace one stage of the process — hand-carving a wax model before casting.
We have not ingested real-world usage data for this occupation yet. We show a band only where genuine data exists, rather than estimate one.
What a jeweler actually does
Jewelers make, repair, and evaluate fine jewelry, working at a scale most trades never touch — fractions of a millimeter matter constantly. The daily work includes cleaning and polishing pieces, cutting and assembling metal components, and handling the repairs that make up much of a working jeweler's week: resizing rings, resoldering broken joints, replacing clasps and prongs, and resetting stones that have come loose.
Jewelers grade stones by color, cut, and clarity, both for repair work and for appraisal, and design new pieces from scratch — sketching or CAD-modeling a concept, casting a metal model from a wax or 3D-printed pattern, then finishing it entirely by hand: filing, polishing, engraving, and setting stones one at a time under magnification.
Every stone setting is a physical risk calculation — too much pressure cracks a gem, too little leaves it loose — made by feel through a hand tool, not by a program. Many jewelers also appraise finished pieces, translating a stone's cut and clarity into an actual dollar value for insurance, resale, or estate purposes, which blends craft skill with market judgment.
Why it reads this way
CAD design software and 3D-printed wax models are real and widely adopted in this trade, but they only replace one stage of the process — hand-carving a wax model before casting. They don't touch the tasks that make up the rest of this occupation's day: setting stones, resizing rings, soldering repairs, or judging a stone's quality under a loupe.
A direct search for robotic or automated stone-setting and jewelry-repair systems — the actual hand-skill tasks in this job — turned up nothing: no commercial deployment automating the physical act of seating and securing a gemstone, or diagnosing and fixing a broken clasp or worn prong. No government license restricts the craft itself; a jeweler can practice without any license at all.
Business-level licenses (secondhand dealer, precious-metals dealer) attach to the retail side of selling jewelry, not the skilled hand-work, and gemstone credentials like the GIA Graduate Gemologist or AGS Certified Gemologist Appraiser are voluntary professional distinctions rather than legal requirements.
Skills this role draws on
We don't yet have task-by-task time-share data for this occupation, so we can't show which specific tasks carry the exposure score above. This is the real skill set instead.
Typical salary range (USD)
$35,580–$87,540
Average: $52,540/yr
Range source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers (51-9071.00), 2025 release
Average source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers (51-9071.00), 2025 release, accessed via O*NET OnLine / My Next Move — direct bls.gov access returned HTTP 403 during research
Related careers
Head-to-head comparisons
Jeweler scores 69/100 (Safe band). CAD design and 3D-printed wax models have real, wide adoption, but they only replace one stage — the hand-carved wax model before casting — leaving stone setting, ring resizing, soldering repairs, and appraisal untouched. No commercial robotic or automated system was found doing stone setting or jewelry repair, the physically judgment-heavy core of this occupation. No government license restricts the craft itself; gemological credentials (GIA Graduate Gemologist, AGS) are voluntary.
This is a researched judgment (checklist v1.2), not a statistical measurement — it sits alongside, not instead of, the structural exposure signal above. Next scheduled review: 2027-02-11.
Data sources & methodology
Salary data: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers (51-9071.00), 2025 release. Min/max figures represent the 10th–90th percentile annual wage range across the United States. Average figure sourced separately: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, Jewelers and Precious Stone and Metal Workers (51-9071.00), 2025 release, accessed via O*NET OnLine / My Next Move — direct bls.gov access returned HTTP 403 during research.
Automation Risk Score: Based on O*NET occupational analysis (51-9071.00) evaluating task complexity, physical requirements, social intelligence, and environmental variability. Methodology based on research from Frey & Osborne (Oxford, 2017).
Growth projections: -1% or lower (2024-2034), based on BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook.