Production

Water Treatment Operators

SOC 51-8031

Run the plants that make water safe to drink and treat waste.

Median pay

$60k

$48k to $75k typical range

Outlook

Declining

11k openings / yr

Education

High school

AI exposure

58%

modeled estimate · 1th pct in Microsoft's data

Future-proof

29/100

Key skills

Monitoring
Active Listening
Speaking
Reading Comprehension
Critical Thinking
Mathematics

Where this ranks

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Pay and outlook from BLS (OEWS 2025, Employment Projections 2024-2034). Skills and work activities from O*NET 30.3. AI exposure and future-proof scores are modeled estimates. How we model AI exposure.