Launderers
dry cleaners and pressers
Launderers, dry cleaners and pressers supervise and undertake the washing, dry cleaning, ironing and pressing of clothing, household and other linen, carpets, curtains and other articles.
- Employees (UK)
- 13k
- Median annual pay
- £20,464
- Exposure score ?
- 0.0/10 Minimal 0.4/10 Minimal strict reading, with tools is 0.4/10 with-tools reading, strict is 0.0/10
- Wage exposure
- £0 £0
Higher exposure than 10% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means.
Most of this role's work is still hard for AI: physical presence, practised skill, judgement in context and direct care, the things that do not turn into text.
If you are in this role
Nothing here is under pressure today, but the frontier moves. Learn enough to direct AI at the paperwork around the job. People in hands-on roles who can do that become unusually useful inside their organisations.
Most of this role's work is still hard for AI: physical presence, practised skill, judgement in context and direct care, the things that do not turn into text.
If you are in this role
Nothing here is under pressure today, but the frontier moves. Learn enough to direct AI at the paperwork around the job. People in hands-on roles who can do that become unusually useful inside their organisations.
Where the work usually starts.
This role's strict reading is low because its top tasks are judgement, not drafting. The three highest-stakes tasks below are still usually where the work starts. Switch to With tools to see what AI plus the right context can take on.
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Hang, fold, package, and tag finished articles for delivery to customers.
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Operate steam, hydraulic, or other pressing machines to remove wrinkles from garments and flatwork items, or to shape, form, or patch articles.
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Straighten, smooth, or shape materials to prepare them for pressing.
For this role the labels do not surface obvious candidates, so the work would start with the highest-stakes tasks below and find the AI angle in conversation.
-
Hang, fold, package, and tag finished articles for delivery to customers.
-
Operate steam, hydraulic, or other pressing machines to remove wrinkles from garments and flatwork items, or to shape, form, or patch articles.
-
Straighten, smooth, or shape materials to prepare them for pressing.
Every role has three or four places like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days.
Every task in the role.
Every O*NET task for this occupation, split by what AI can do unaided and what still needs a person. Importance is O*NET's 1 to 5 rating of how central each task is.
Tasks via O*NET "Pressers, Textile, Garment, and Related Materials" (51-6021.00).
What AI can already do
0 of 28 tasks, unaided
No tasks here are labelled as something an LLM can do unaided. Switch to 'With tools' above to see what changes when AI is paired with the right context.
What still needs a person
28 of 28 tasks
Hang, fold, package, and tag finished articles for delivery to customers.
Operate steam, hydraulic, or other pressing machines to remove wrinkles from garments and flatwork items, or to shape, form, or patch articles.
Straighten, smooth, or shape materials to prepare them for pressing.
Remove finished pieces from pressing machines and hang or stack them for cooling, or forward them for additional processing.
Finish pleated garments, determining sizes of pleats from evidence of old pleats or from work orders, using machine presses or hand irons.
Lower irons, rams, or pressing heads of machines into position over material to be pressed.
Identify and treat spots on garments.
Shrink, stretch, or block articles by hand to conform to original measurements, using forms, blocks, and steam.
Finish fancy garments such as evening gowns and costumes, using hand irons to produce high quality finishes.
Push and pull irons over surfaces of articles to smooth or shape them.
Finish pants, jackets, shirts, skirts and other dry-cleaned and laundered articles, using hand irons.
Slide material back and forth over heated, metal, ball-shaped forms to smooth and press portions of garments that cannot be satisfactorily pressed with flat pressers or hand irons.
Select appropriate pressing machines, based on garment properties such as heat tolerance.
Use covering cloths to prevent equipment from damaging delicate fabrics.
Spray water over fabric to soften fibers when not using steam irons.
Position materials such as cloth garments, felt, or straw on tables, dies, or feeding mechanisms of pressing machines, or on ironing boards or work tables.
Examine and measure finished articles to verify conformance to standards, using measuring devices such as tape measures and micrometers.
Moisten materials to soften and smooth them.
Finish velvet garments by steaming them on bucks of hot-head presses or steam tables, and brushing pile (nap) with handbrushes.
Measure fabric to specifications, cut uneven edges with shears, fold material, and press it with an iron to form a heading.
Clean and maintain pressing machines, using cleaning solutions and lubricants.
Insert heated metal forms into ties and touch up rough places with hand irons.
Press ties on small pressing machines.
Block or shape knitted garments after cleaning.
Activate and adjust machine controls to regulate temperature and pressure of rollers, ironing shoes, or plates, according to specifications.
Brush materials made of suede, leather, or felt to remove spots or to raise and smooth naps.
Sew ends of new material to leaders or to ends of material in pressing machines, using sewing machines.
Select, install, and adjust machine components, including pressing forms, rollers, and guides, using hoists and hand tools.
Tasks via O*NET "Pressers, Textile, Garment, and Related Materials" (51-6021.00).
What AI can already do
1 of 28 tasks, with tools
Examine and measure finished articles to verify conformance to standards, using measuring devices such as tape measures and micrometers.
What still needs a person
27 of 28 tasks
Hang, fold, package, and tag finished articles for delivery to customers.
Operate steam, hydraulic, or other pressing machines to remove wrinkles from garments and flatwork items, or to shape, form, or patch articles.
Straighten, smooth, or shape materials to prepare them for pressing.
Remove finished pieces from pressing machines and hang or stack them for cooling, or forward them for additional processing.
Finish pleated garments, determining sizes of pleats from evidence of old pleats or from work orders, using machine presses or hand irons.
Lower irons, rams, or pressing heads of machines into position over material to be pressed.
Identify and treat spots on garments.
Shrink, stretch, or block articles by hand to conform to original measurements, using forms, blocks, and steam.
Finish fancy garments such as evening gowns and costumes, using hand irons to produce high quality finishes.
Push and pull irons over surfaces of articles to smooth or shape them.
Finish pants, jackets, shirts, skirts and other dry-cleaned and laundered articles, using hand irons.
Slide material back and forth over heated, metal, ball-shaped forms to smooth and press portions of garments that cannot be satisfactorily pressed with flat pressers or hand irons.
Select appropriate pressing machines, based on garment properties such as heat tolerance.
Use covering cloths to prevent equipment from damaging delicate fabrics.
Spray water over fabric to soften fibers when not using steam irons.
Position materials such as cloth garments, felt, or straw on tables, dies, or feeding mechanisms of pressing machines, or on ironing boards or work tables.
Moisten materials to soften and smooth them.
Finish velvet garments by steaming them on bucks of hot-head presses or steam tables, and brushing pile (nap) with handbrushes.
Measure fabric to specifications, cut uneven edges with shears, fold material, and press it with an iron to form a heading.
Clean and maintain pressing machines, using cleaning solutions and lubricants.
Insert heated metal forms into ties and touch up rough places with hand irons.
Press ties on small pressing machines.
Block or shape knitted garments after cleaning.
Activate and adjust machine controls to regulate temperature and pressure of rollers, ironing shoes, or plates, according to specifications.
Brush materials made of suede, leather, or felt to remove spots or to raise and smooth naps.
Sew ends of new material to leaders or to ends of material in pressing machines, using sewing machines.
Select, install, and adjust machine components, including pressing forms, rollers, and guides, using hoists and hand tools.
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Related occupations.
Other roles in Elementary occupations, and roles close by exposure.
What it means for your sector.
This role's score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 task labels, weighted by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 through ISCO-08 (the ONS coding index) and US SOC 2010 (the BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional, which covers employees only.
Back to the mapMethodologySources (PDF)Built 29 April 2026
Pictures
- "Census pantograph and 1930s keypunches" by U.S. Census Bureau employees, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Shepard Barclay, St. Louis lawyer, in his office" by Missouri Historical Society via DPLA, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Accountant's Office LCCN2016824374" by National Photo Company Collection, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Employment service in Oulu in the spring 1931" by Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons