Welding trades
Welding trades workers join metal parts by welding, brazing and soldering, and cut and remove defects from metal using a variety of equipment and techniques.
- Employees (UK)
- 37k
- Median annual pay
- £34,742
- Exposure score ?
- 0.7/10 Minimal 0.9/10 Minimal strict reading, with tools is 0.9/10 with-tools reading, strict is 0.7/10
- Wage exposure
- £90m £116m
Higher exposure than 40% 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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Operate safety equipment and use safe work habits.
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Examine workpieces for defects and measure workpieces with straightedges or templates to ensure conformance with specifications.
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Weld components in flat, vertical, or overhead positions.
These are the most important tasks AI can already handle when paired with the right tools and context. The first wins usually come from building workflows around them. That is the difference between a model that could do the job and one that actually does it inside your business.
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Determine required equipment and welding methods, applying knowledge of metallurgy, geometry, and welding techniques.
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Develop templates and models for welding projects, using mathematical calculations based on blueprint information.
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Analyze engineering drawings, blueprints, specifications, sketches, work orders, and material safety data sheets to plan layout, assembly, and operations.
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 "Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers" (51-4121.00).
What AI can already do
2 of 30 tasks, unaided
Determine required equipment and welding methods, applying knowledge of metallurgy, geometry, and welding techniques.
Develop templates and models for welding projects, using mathematical calculations based on blueprint information.
What still needs a person
28 of 30 tasks
Operate safety equipment and use safe work habits.
Examine workpieces for defects and measure workpieces with straightedges or templates to ensure conformance with specifications.
Weld components in flat, vertical, or overhead positions.
Check grooves, angles, or gap allowances, using micrometers, calipers, and precision measuring instruments.
Detect faulty operation of equipment or defective materials and notify supervisors.
Recognize, set up, and operate hand and power tools common to the welding trade, such as shielded metal arc and gas metal arc welding equipment.
Select and install torches, torch tips, filler rods, and flux, according to welding chart specifications or types and thicknesses of metals.
Mark or tag material with proper job number, piece marks, and other identifying marks as required.
Prepare all material surfaces to be welded, ensuring that there is no loose or thick scale, slag, rust, moisture, grease, or other foreign matter.
Align and clamp workpieces together, using rules, squares, or hand tools, or position items in fixtures, jigs, or vises.
Melt and apply solder to fill holes, indentations, or seams of fabricated metal products, using soldering equipment.
Connect and turn regulator valves to activate and adjust gas flow and pressure so that desired flames are obtained.
Position and secure workpieces, using hoists, cranes, wire, and banding machines or hand tools.
Melt and apply solder along adjoining edges of workpieces to solder joints, using soldering irons, gas torches, or electric-ultrasonic equipment.
Monitor the fitting, burning, and welding processes to avoid overheating of parts or warping, shrinking, distortion, or expansion of material.
Grind, cut, buff, or bend edges of workpieces to be joined to ensure snug fit, using power grinders and hand tools.
Ignite torches or start power supplies and strike arcs by touching electrodes to metals being welded, completing electrical circuits.
Weld separately or in combination, using aluminum, stainless steel, cast iron, and other alloys.
Chip or grind off excess weld, slag, or spatter, using hand scrapers or power chippers, portable grinders, or arc-cutting equipment.
Guide and direct flames or electrodes on or across workpieces to straighten, bend, melt, or build up metal.
Use fire suppression methods in industrial emergencies.
Repair products by dismantling, straightening, reshaping, and reassembling parts, using cutting torches, straightening presses, and hand tools.
Preheat workpieces prior to welding or bending, using torches or heating furnaces.
Clean or degrease parts, using wire brushes, portable grinders, or chemical baths.
Set up and use ladders and scaffolding as necessary to complete work.
Hammer out bulges or bends in metal workpieces.
Operate metal shaping, straightening, and bending machines, such as brakes and shears.
Analyze engineering drawings, blueprints, specifications, sketches, work orders, and material safety data sheets to plan layout, assembly, and operations.
Tasks via O*NET "Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers" (51-4121.00).
What AI can already do
3 of 30 tasks, with tools
Determine required equipment and welding methods, applying knowledge of metallurgy, geometry, and welding techniques.
Develop templates and models for welding projects, using mathematical calculations based on blueprint information.
Analyze engineering drawings, blueprints, specifications, sketches, work orders, and material safety data sheets to plan layout, assembly, and operations.
What still needs a person
27 of 30 tasks
Operate safety equipment and use safe work habits.
Examine workpieces for defects and measure workpieces with straightedges or templates to ensure conformance with specifications.
Weld components in flat, vertical, or overhead positions.
Check grooves, angles, or gap allowances, using micrometers, calipers, and precision measuring instruments.
Detect faulty operation of equipment or defective materials and notify supervisors.
Recognize, set up, and operate hand and power tools common to the welding trade, such as shielded metal arc and gas metal arc welding equipment.
Select and install torches, torch tips, filler rods, and flux, according to welding chart specifications or types and thicknesses of metals.
Mark or tag material with proper job number, piece marks, and other identifying marks as required.
Prepare all material surfaces to be welded, ensuring that there is no loose or thick scale, slag, rust, moisture, grease, or other foreign matter.
Align and clamp workpieces together, using rules, squares, or hand tools, or position items in fixtures, jigs, or vises.
Melt and apply solder to fill holes, indentations, or seams of fabricated metal products, using soldering equipment.
Connect and turn regulator valves to activate and adjust gas flow and pressure so that desired flames are obtained.
Position and secure workpieces, using hoists, cranes, wire, and banding machines or hand tools.
Melt and apply solder along adjoining edges of workpieces to solder joints, using soldering irons, gas torches, or electric-ultrasonic equipment.
Monitor the fitting, burning, and welding processes to avoid overheating of parts or warping, shrinking, distortion, or expansion of material.
Grind, cut, buff, or bend edges of workpieces to be joined to ensure snug fit, using power grinders and hand tools.
Ignite torches or start power supplies and strike arcs by touching electrodes to metals being welded, completing electrical circuits.
Weld separately or in combination, using aluminum, stainless steel, cast iron, and other alloys.
Chip or grind off excess weld, slag, or spatter, using hand scrapers or power chippers, portable grinders, or arc-cutting equipment.
Guide and direct flames or electrodes on or across workpieces to straighten, bend, melt, or build up metal.
Use fire suppression methods in industrial emergencies.
Repair products by dismantling, straightening, reshaping, and reassembling parts, using cutting torches, straightening presses, and hand tools.
Preheat workpieces prior to welding or bending, using torches or heating furnaces.
Clean or degrease parts, using wire brushes, portable grinders, or chemical baths.
Set up and use ladders and scaffolding as necessary to complete work.
Hammer out bulges or bends in metal workpieces.
Operate metal shaping, straightening, and bending machines, such as brakes and shears.
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Related occupations.
Other roles in Skilled trades 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