Telephone switchboard operators
Most tasks score high and the scores agree. Expect the role to be reorganised.
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.· 12/10/2026How is it made?
With an exposure score 54/100, automated systems increasingly handle routine routing, but operators remain vital for managing distressed callers, complex routing exceptions, and console malfunctions amid steady replacement demand.
What changes
- Automated call distribution and interactive voice systems handle standard call routing and transfers.
- AI voice agents answer frequent inquiries and automatically log structured caller messages.
- Automated routing workflows instantly transcribe and dispatch voice messages to employee inboxes.
What stays human
- De-escalating distressed, urgent, or confused callers requiring empathy and nuanced emotional intelligence.
- Resolving ambiguous, high-priority, or confidential requests that automated voice menus fail to interpret.
- Investigating switchboard hardware faults, line disconnections, and coordinating with telecommunication repair crews.
What to learn
- Administering modern cloud PBX systems, unified communication dashboards, and VoIP routing configurations.
- Mastering conflict de-escalation, crisis communication, and executive-level telephone concierge protocols.
- Learning telecom troubleshooting workflows to diagnose switchboard system outages and coordinate technical repairs.
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).
- Operating switchboards and consoles to connect, hold, transfer, and disconnect telephone calls67
- Dealing with telephone inquiries and recording messages62
- Forwarding messages to staff or clients58
- Making connections for outgoing calls54
- Investigating operating system problems and informing repair services.29
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.
- Operating switchboards and consoles to connect, hold, transfer, and disconnect telephone calls(67)
- Dealing with telephone inquiries and recording messages(62)
- Forwarding messages to staff or clients(58)
- Making connections for outgoing calls(54)
- Investigating operating system problems and informing repair services.(29)
You are exactly at the occupation average. (The occupation's score: 54.)
About 80% of your working time goes to highly exposed tasks (score ≥ 50).
- • Operating switchboards and consoles to connect, hold, transfer, and disconnect telephone calls
- • Dealing with telephone inquiries and recording messages
- • Investigating operating system problems and informing repair services.
- • Making connections for outgoing calls
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 Customer services clerks group in total employment, by country (Eurostat, ISCO 2-digit — 4-digit breakdowns are not public by country).
Table view
| Country | Customer services clerks |
|---|---|
| Spain | 4.1% · 914 thousand · 2025 |
| United Kingdom | 3.7% · 1,247 thousand · 2025 |
| Malta | 2.8% · 9 thousand · 2025 |
| Italy | 2.2% · 522 thousand · 2025 |
| Switzerland | 2.1% · 101 thousand · 2025 |
| Portugal | 2.0% · 107 thousand · 2025 |
| Ireland | 2.0% · 57 thousand · 2025 |
| Greece | 2.0% · 87 thousand · 2025 |
| Latvia | 2.0% · 18 thousand · 2025 |
| Estonia | 1.9% · 13 thousand · 2025 |
| Netherlands | 1.9% · 187 thousand · 2025 |
| Cyprus | 1.9% · 9 thousand · 2025 |
| Bulgaria | 1.7% · 51 thousand · 2025 |
| Iceland | 1.7% · 4 thousand · 2025 |
| Belgium | 1.7% · 86 thousand · 2025 |
| Croatia | 1.6% · 28 thousand · 2025 |
| Finland | 1.5% · 39 thousand · 2025 |
| Austria | 1.5% · 66 thousand · 2025 |
| Hungary | 1.3% · 63 thousand · 2025 |
| Germany | 1.3% · 571 thousand · 2025 |
| Czechia | 1.3% · 68 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovenia | 1.2% · 12 thousand · 2025 |
| France | 1.2% · 351 thousand · 2025 |
| Sweden | 1.1% · 60 thousand · 2025 |
| Denmark | 1.1% · 35 thousand · 2025 |
| Norway | 1.1% · 32 thousand · 2025 |
| Lithuania | 1.0% · 15 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovakia | 1.0% · 27 thousand · 2025 |
| Romania | 0.8% · 65 thousand · 2025 |
| Poland | 0.8% · 143 thousand · 2025 |
What do they earn?
Mean gross monthly earnings in the major occupational group (Clerical support workers). 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.
- Switzerland4,326
- Luxembourg3,358
- Denmark3,338
- Belgium3,291
- Norway3,160
- Germany2,927
- Ireland2,900
- Iceland2,825
- Austria2,768
- Netherlands2,680
- EU272,590
- Italy2,521
- Sweden2,451
- Finland2,386
- Spain2,121
- Slovenia2,111
- Malta2,089
- Lithuania2,049
- France2,018
- Croatia1,847
- Greece1,837
- Poland1,796
- Romania1,755
- Estonia1,740
- Czechia1,725
- Cyprus1,685
- Hungary1,682
- Latvia1,617
- Slovakia1,583
- Portugal1,421
- Bulgaria1,203
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 Customer services clerks 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?