Chemists
AI can help with a few sub-tasks (emails, paperwork), but the core of the job doesn't change.
Exposure is not job loss: it shows how much of the work generative AI could do today. Whether that turns into transformation, productivity gains or cuts depends on employers, regulation — and on you.
0 = today’s generative AI cannot perform any of the job’s tasks, 100 = it could do all of them fully. The pale band is the spread across tasks.
Work out your own score ↓What can you do?
🤖 Written with AIThis text was written by artificial intelligence from the data points shown; it is built on verified figures but may contain mistakes.· 13/10/2026How is it made?
Chemists have an exposure score of 39/100, while their professional group is projected to grow 11.7% by 2035. AI will reshape research and documentation more than hands-on laboratory work.
What changes
- Accelerating literature review, hypothesis generation and development of chemical concepts
- Drafting scientific papers, technical reports and structured experimental documentation
- Supporting synthesis planning for naturally occurring and novel artificial substances
What stays human
- Designing, conducting and troubleshooting physical experiments, tests and analyses
- Judging safety, validity and unexpected results in laboratory settings
- Collaborating across disciplines to turn chemical findings into workable solutions
What to learn
- Learn AI-assisted literature searching and critically verify chemical claims
- Build computational chemistry, cheminformatics and reproducible data-analysis skills
- Strengthen laboratory automation, quality control and chemical safety expertise
Task by task
The ILO scored every task of the occupation separately, as the average of two AI models (GPT-4o and Gemini). The pale band is the range between the two models' scores, the dot the ILO's final score (for a few tasks expert review placed it outside the band).
- Conducting research and improving or developing concepts, instruments, theories and operational methods related to chemistry55
- Preparing scientific papers and reports.51
- Reproducing and synthesizing naturally occurring substances and creating new artificial substances43
- Developing procedures for environmental control, quality control and various other procedures for manufacturers or users39
- Conducting programmes of sample and data collection and analysis to identify and quantify environmental toxicants39
- Conducting experiments, tests and analyses to investigate chemical composition and energy and chemical changes in various natural or synthetic substances, materials and products37
- Participating in interdisciplinary research and development projects working with chemical engineers, biologists, microbiologists, agronomists, geologists or other professionals35
- Determining ways to strengthen or combine materials or develop new materials.29
- Using micro-organisms to convert substances into new compounds23
How much does it affect you?
Every job is different: mark which of these tasks you do and how much, and we'll compute your own, time-weighted score.
For each task: I don't do it · sometimes · most of my job.
- Conducting research and improving or developing concepts, instruments, theories and operational methods related to chemistry(55)
- Preparing scientific papers and reports.(51)
- Reproducing and synthesizing naturally occurring substances and creating new artificial substances(43)
- Developing procedures for environmental control, quality control and various other procedures for manufacturers or users(39)
- Conducting programmes of sample and data collection and analysis to identify and quantify environmental toxicants(39)
- Conducting experiments, tests and analyses to investigate chemical composition and energy and chemical changes in various natural or synthetic substances, materials and products(37)
- Participating in interdisciplinary research and development projects working with chemical engineers, biologists, microbiologists, agronomists, geologists or other professionals(35)
- Determining ways to strengthen or combine materials or develop new materials.(29)
- Using micro-organisms to convert substances into new compounds(23)
You are exactly at the occupation average. (The occupation's score: 39.)
About 22% of your working time goes to highly exposed tasks (score ≥ 50).
- • Conducting research and improving or developing concepts, instruments, theories and operational methods related to chemistry
- • Preparing scientific papers and reports.
- • Using micro-organisms to convert substances into new compounds
- • Determining ways to strengthen or combine materials or develop new materials.
An estimate from the ILO task scores. Everything is computed in your browser — nothing is sent or stored.
How many people work in this occupational group?
Share of the Science and engineering professionals group in total employment, by country (Eurostat, ISCO 2-digit — 4-digit breakdowns are not public by country).
Table view
| Country | Science and engineering professionals |
|---|---|
| Finland | 6.3% · 163 thousand · 2025 |
| Luxembourg | 5.3% · 17 thousand · 2025 |
| Ireland | 4.8% · 135 thousand · 2025 |
| France | 4.7% · 1,380 thousand · 2025 |
| Germany | 4.5% · 1,920 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovenia | 4.5% · 45 thousand · 2025 |
| Lithuania | 4.4% · 65 thousand · 2025 |
| Netherlands | 4.3% · 428 thousand · 2025 |
| Switzerland | 4.3% · 208 thousand · 2025 |
| Sweden | 4.1% · 218 thousand · 2025 |
| Cyprus | 4.0% · 20 thousand · 2025 |
| Iceland | 3.9% · 9 thousand · 2025 |
| Portugal | 3.9% · 207 thousand · 2025 |
| Denmark | 3.9% · 121 thousand · 2025 |
| Greece | 3.9% · 169 thousand · 2025 |
| Belgium | 3.9% · 199 thousand · 2025 |
| Romania | 3.6% · 277 thousand · 2025 |
| United Kingdom | 3.5% · 1,203 thousand · 2025 |
| Hungary | 3.5% · 163 thousand · 2025 |
| Poland | 3.5% · 598 thousand · 2025 |
| Spain | 3.4% · 757 thousand · 2025 |
| Czechia | 3.4% · 176 thousand · 2025 |
| Croatia | 3.3% · 56 thousand · 2025 |
| Austria | 3.2% · 142 thousand · 2025 |
| Norway | 3.1% · 91 thousand · 2025 |
| Malta | 3.1% · 10 thousand · 2025 |
| Estonia | 3.0% · 21 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovakia | 3.0% · 78 thousand · 2025 |
| Latvia | 2.9% · 25 thousand · 2025 |
| Bulgaria | 2.8% · 81 thousand · 2025 |
| Italy | 2.7% · 659 thousand · 2025 |
What do they earn?
Mean gross monthly earnings in the major occupational group (Professionals). Eurostat's earnings survey only publishes pay by occupation at 1 digit, so this is the job's broader group. Enterprises with 10+ employees, 2022.
By country, at purchasing power parity (PPS/month), so countries with different price levels can be compared.
- Switzerland6,389
- Luxembourg5,274
- Ireland4,873
- Germany4,807
- Belgium4,799
- Denmark4,446
- Norway4,237
- Austria4,099
- Netherlands4,031
- Iceland3,875
- EU273,850
- France3,791
- Finland3,769
- Romania3,559
- Sweden3,416
- Spain3,413
- Slovenia3,326
- Italy3,305
- Cyprus3,271
- Lithuania3,221
- Croatia2,890
- Czechia2,871
- Malta2,825
- Poland2,783
- Hungary2,777
- Portugal2,755
- Latvia2,671
- Estonia2,599
- Bulgaria2,359
- Slovakia2,345
- Greece2,321
Source: Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey (earn_ses22_21), every four years. The United Kingdom is not covered by the survey.
Outlook to 2035
Employment in the Science and engineering professionals group according to Cedefop's 2026 forecast.
thousand · Cedefop Skills Forecast 2026 · 2026–2035: projection
Replacement demand is the jobs left by people retiring or changing careers — even a shrinking occupation can have many openings.
Related occupations
Sources: ILO WP140 (2025) · Eurostat lfsa_egai2d · Cedefop Skills Forecast 2026 · WEF Future of Jobs 2025 · ESCO. The exposure score measures how much of an occupation's tasks generative AI could perform — not whether the job disappears. For information only, not career advice. How do we calculate this?