Cooks
In the ILO's assessment few of the job's tasks can be done by generative AI, or the scores are too spread out to reach gradient 1 — generative AI does not meaningfully take over the core of the work.
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?
The AI analysis for this occupation is still being prepared — the background process covers a few occupations every day.
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).
- Planning, supervising and coordinating the work of kitchen helpers29
- Regulating the temperature of ovens, grills, roasters and other cooking equipment25
- Planning meals, preparing and cooking foodstuffs19
- Checking the quality of food17
- Inspecting and cleaning the kitchen, kitchen equipment and serving areas, to ensure safe and sanitary food handling practices15
- Weighing, measuring and mixing ingredients according to recipes and personal judgement14
- Operating large-volume cooking equipment such as grills, deep-fat fryers or griddles.10
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.
- Planning, supervising and coordinating the work of kitchen helpers(29)
- Regulating the temperature of ovens, grills, roasters and other cooking equipment(25)
- Planning meals, preparing and cooking foodstuffs(19)
- Checking the quality of food(17)
- Inspecting and cleaning the kitchen, kitchen equipment and serving areas, to ensure safe and sanitary food handling practices(15)
- Weighing, measuring and mixing ingredients according to recipes and personal judgement(14)
- Operating large-volume cooking equipment such as grills, deep-fat fryers or griddles.(10)
You are exactly at the occupation average. (The occupation's score: 18.)
About 0% of your working time goes to highly exposed tasks (score ≥ 50).
- • Planning, supervising and coordinating the work of kitchen helpers
- • Regulating the temperature of ovens, grills, roasters and other cooking equipment
- • Operating large-volume cooking equipment such as grills, deep-fat fryers or griddles.
- • Weighing, measuring and mixing ingredients according to recipes and personal judgement
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 Personal service workers group in total employment, by country (Eurostat, ISCO 2-digit — 4-digit breakdowns are not public by country).
Table view
| Country | Personal service workers |
|---|---|
| Cyprus | 6.9% · 35 thousand · 2025 |
| Greece | 6.4% · 276 thousand · 2025 |
| Italy | 5.9% · 1,417 thousand · 2025 |
| Croatia | 5.9% · 100 thousand · 2025 |
| Austria | 5.8% · 259 thousand · 2025 |
| Latvia | 5.7% · 51 thousand · 2025 |
| Switzerland | 5.6% · 271 thousand · 2025 |
| Iceland | 5.5% · 13 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovakia | 5.5% · 142 thousand · 2025 |
| Czechia | 5.0% · 261 thousand · 2025 |
| Malta | 4.9% · 16 thousand · 2025 |
| Netherlands | 4.8% · 471 thousand · 2025 |
| Finland | 4.7% · 122 thousand · 2025 |
| Germany | 4.7% · 1,993 thousand · 2025 |
| Portugal | 4.6% · 240 thousand · 2025 |
| Spain | 4.5% · 1,007 thousand · 2025 |
| Norway | 4.5% · 131 thousand · 2025 |
| Bulgaria | 4.4% · 129 thousand · 2025 |
| Ireland | 4.4% · 123 thousand · 2025 |
| Hungary | 4.2% · 197 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovenia | 4.2% · 42 thousand · 2025 |
| Estonia | 4.1% · 28 thousand · 2025 |
| Romania | 3.9% · 300 thousand · 2025 |
| Denmark | 3.9% · 119 thousand · 2025 |
| Belgium | 3.8% · 197 thousand · 2025 |
| Lithuania | 3.7% · 55 thousand · 2025 |
| France | 3.5% · 1,032 thousand · 2025 |
| Luxembourg | 3.4% · 11 thousand · 2025 |
| Sweden | 3.2% · 170 thousand · 2025 |
| Poland | 2.9% · 496 thousand · 2025 |
| United Kingdom | 2.1% · 718 thousand · 2025 |
What do they earn?
Mean gross monthly earnings in the major occupational group (Service and sales 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.
- Switzerland3,559
- Ireland2,981
- Iceland2,762
- Norway2,734
- Luxembourg2,698
- Belgium2,689
- Denmark2,619
- Germany2,310
- Sweden2,292
- Finland2,182
- Netherlands2,147
- Austria2,135
- EU272,105
- France2,099
- Italy2,088
- Slovenia1,822
- Malta1,773
- Spain1,759
- Lithuania1,577
- Czechia1,467
- Poland1,464
- Croatia1,458
- Greece1,421
- Cyprus1,410
- Slovakia1,403
- Romania1,372
- Hungary1,299
- Estonia1,266
- Portugal1,202
- Latvia1,186
- Bulgaria917
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 Personal service workers 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.
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?