How did production occupations evolve over time in terms of their skill sets and numbers?

The job profile of industrial employment is changing because of Industry 4.0 worldwide. In this paper, we investigate the most susceptible job sector to automation, which is a production occupation, as stated by many authors in the scientific literature. To assess this, we reviewed the production occupations from the DOT (Dictionary of Occupational Titles) from the 1965 and 1991editions and 1998 to 2024 versions, its successor, the O*NET (Occupational Information Network) database. In addition, we examined the Worker Functions variable from the DOT and the Skills variable from the O*NET database for Production Occupations. By considering these variables, we analyzed the real data from each edition to determine the real impact of Industry 4.0. In this study, we developed a hypothesis by investigating the Gone, Remained, and New Jobs of the Production Jobs category; this specific job cluster from 1965 to 2024; and its required worker functions and skills to obtain a better understanding of each job’s nature and how its skill sets are susceptible to automation. Our findings suggests that the relevance of technological bottlenecks to automation varies across production occupations. Furthermore, the results indicate that some skills can be automated, but the whole content of a production occupation cannot be automated.