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Work Context Index

Jobs with the least customer and public interaction

O*NET asks people in every occupation "How important is it to deal with external customers (as in retail sales) or the public in general (as in police work) in this job?" and publishes the mean answer on a 1-to-5 scale. This page lists the 25 occupations whose mean sits lowest, with the BLS wage, education and outlook for each.

Which jobs have the least dealing with customers or the public?

Across the 894 occupations O*NET 30.3 rates, the 25 lowest for Deal With External Customers or the Public in General average between 1.09 and 1.68 on O*NET's 1-to-5 scale, where 1 means "Not important at all" and 5 means "Extremely important"; the median across all occupations is 3.44. Lowest are Roof Bolters, Mining (1.09), Pourers and Casters, Metal (1.11), Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic (1.15). Their median BLS wage is $48,750 (2025, 25 of 25 with a BLS line item), and 25 of the 25 with BLS education data typically need less than a bachelor's degree.

Occupations compared
894 O*NET 30.3 occupations with published Work Context ratings
What O*NET asks incumbents
Deal With External Customers or the Public in General: "How important is it to deal with external customers (as in retail sales) or the public in general (as in police work) in this job?"
Scale
1 = Not important at all; 3 = Important; 5 = Extremely important. Values are mean incumbent ratings.
Wage and outlook source
BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, Table 1.2 Occupational projections, 2025–35, and worker characteristics, 2025 (Employment in thousands). 0 of the 25 occupations listed have a dedicated RoleSprint page.

Source and method

O*NET 30.3 Database (Work Context), U.S. Department of Labor, and BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2. Verified 2026-09-05. Ratings are reproduced from O*NET as published mean incumbent responses on each question's own 1-to-5 scale. Percentile ranks, composite averages and the resulting order are RoleSprint's computation and are described on the methodology page. Wage, education and outlook fields are reproduced from BLS for the matching SOC code and left blank where BLS publishes no line item.

What this page does and does not claim

People search this as “jobs with no customer interaction”. This page answers that with the measurement behind it: Deal With External Customers or the Public in General, rated on a fixed 1-to-5 scale by people who do each job.

It does not say which jobs suit a personality, a temperament or a health condition. It reports a measured condition of the work and lets you decide whether that condition is the one you meant.

The 25 occupations

Ordered by mean rating for Deal With External Customers or the Public in General, lowest first. Scale: 1 = Not important at all; 5 = Extremely important.

#OccupationO*NET valueRankBLS wage and education
1

Roof Bolters, Mining

O*NET-SOC 47-5043.00

1.09 of 5

Not important at all

Lower than 99%

of 894 occupations

$78,540 median (2025)

High school diploma or equivalent · -18.9% 2025-35

2

Pourers and Casters, Metal

O*NET-SOC 51-4052.00

1.11 of 5

Not important at all

Lower than 99%

of 894 occupations

$51,810 median (2025)

High school diploma or equivalent · -5% 2025-35

3

Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

O*NET-SOC 51-4072.00

1.15 of 5

Not important at all

Lower than 99%

of 894 occupations

$44,350 median (2025)

High school diploma or equivalent · -3.4% 2025-35

4

Cutters and Trimmers, Hand

O*NET-SOC 51-9031.00

1.16 of 5

Not important at all

Lower than 99%

of 894 occupations

$38,020 median (2025)

No formal educational credential · -18.9% 2025-35

5

Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood

O*NET-SOC 51-7041.00

1.20 of 5

Not important at all

Lower than 99%

of 894 occupations

$42,770 median (2025)

High school diploma or equivalent · -1% 2025-35

6

Continuous Mining Machine Operators

O*NET-SOC 47-5041.00

1.22 of 5

Not important at all

Lower than 99%

of 894 occupations

$61,810 median (2025)

No formal educational credential · +3.2% 2025-35

7

Cleaning, Washing, and Metal Pickling Equipment Operators and Tenders

O*NET-SOC 51-9192.00

1.25 of 5

between "Not important at all" and "Fairly important"

Lower than 99%

of 894 occupations

$43,530 median (2025)

High school diploma or equivalent · +3.4% 2025-35

8

Model Makers, Metal and Plastic

O*NET-SOC 51-4061.00

1.31 of 5

between "Not important at all" and "Fairly important"

Lower than 99%

of 894 occupations

$63,340 median (2025)

High school diploma or equivalent · -17.3% 2025-35

9

Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

O*NET-SOC 51-4021.00

1.32 of 5

between "Not important at all" and "Fairly important"

Lower than 99%

of 894 occupations

$47,720 median (2025)

High school diploma or equivalent · +0.7% 2025-35

10

Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders

O*NET-SOC 51-9012.00

1.39 of 5

between "Not important at all" and "Fairly important"

Lower than 99%

of 894 occupations

$51,610 median (2025)

High school diploma or equivalent · -5.7% 2025-35

11

Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators

O*NET-SOC 43-5053.00

1.41 of 5

between "Not important at all" and "Fairly important"

Lower than 99%

of 894 occupations

$58,470 median (2025)

No formal educational credential · -5.3% 2025-35

12

Textile Knitting and Weaving Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders

O*NET-SOC 51-6063.00

1.44 of 5

between "Not important at all" and "Fairly important"

Lower than 99%

of 894 occupations

$39,530 median (2025)

High school diploma or equivalent · -13.7% 2025-35

13

Furniture Finishers

O*NET-SOC 51-7021.00

1.45 of 5

between "Not important at all" and "Fairly important"

Lower than 99%

of 894 occupations

$44,540 median (2025)

High school diploma or equivalent · -3.5% 2025-35

14

Timing Device Assemblers and Adjusters

O*NET-SOC 51-2061.00

1.45 of 5

between "Not important at all" and "Fairly important"

Lower than 99%

of 894 occupations

$62,620 median (2025)

High school diploma or equivalent · -6.1% 2025-35

15

Furnace, Kiln, Oven, Drier, and Kettle Operators and Tenders

O*NET-SOC 51-9051.00

1.46 of 5

between "Not important at all" and "Fairly important"

Lower than 98%

of 894 occupations

$48,040 median (2025)

High school diploma or equivalent · +2.6% 2025-35

16

Sewing Machine Operators

O*NET-SOC 51-6031.00

1.48 of 5

between "Not important at all" and "Fairly important"

Lower than 98%

of 894 occupations

$36,670 median (2025)

No formal educational credential · -15.1% 2025-35

17

Dredge Operators

O*NET-SOC 53-7031.00

1.50 of 5

between "Not important at all" and "Fairly important"

Lower than 98%

of 894 occupations

$49,640 median (2025)

High school diploma or equivalent · +0.7% 2025-35

18

Textile Cutting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders

O*NET-SOC 51-6062.00

1.54 of 5

between "Not important at all" and "Fairly important"

Lower than 98%

of 894 occupations

$38,760 median (2025)

High school diploma or equivalent · -13.6% 2025-35

19

Heat Treating Equipment Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic

O*NET-SOC 51-4191.00

1.63 of 5

between "Not important at all" and "Fairly important"

Lower than 98%

of 894 occupations

$48,750 median (2025)

High school diploma or equivalent · -9.5% 2025-35

20

Refractory Materials Repairers, Except Brickmasons

O*NET-SOC 49-9045.00

1.64 of 5

between "Not important at all" and "Fairly important"

Lower than 98%

of 894 occupations

$61,290 median (2025)

High school diploma or equivalent · -13.7% 2025-35

21

Textile Winding, Twisting, and Drawing Out Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders

O*NET-SOC 51-6064.00

1.65 of 5

between "Not important at all" and "Fairly important"

Lower than 98%

of 894 occupations

$38,670 median (2025)

High school diploma or equivalent · -10.3% 2025-35

22

Loading and Moving Machine Operators, Underground Mining

O*NET-SOC 47-5044.00

1.65 of 5

between "Not important at all" and "Fairly important"

Lower than 98%

of 894 occupations

$74,500 median (2025)

No formal educational credential · -15.8% 2025-35

23

Chemical Equipment Operators and Tenders

O*NET-SOC 51-9011.00

1.68 of 5

between "Not important at all" and "Fairly important"

Lower than 97%

of 894 occupations

$58,040 median (2025)

High school diploma or equivalent · +3.6% 2025-35

24

Chemical Plant and System Operators

O*NET-SOC 51-8091.00

1.68 of 5

between "Not important at all" and "Fairly important"

Lower than 97%

of 894 occupations

$78,120 median (2025)

High school diploma or equivalent · -5.2% 2025-35

25

Shoe Machine Operators and Tenders

O*NET-SOC 51-6042.00

1.68 of 5

between "Not important at all" and "Fairly important"

Lower than 97%

of 894 occupations

$35,650 median (2025)

High school diploma or equivalent · -6.9% 2025-35

Values are mean ratings from O*NET 30.3; most come from surveys of people in the occupation, some from occupational experts, and some for newer occupations from O*NET analysts. Wage, education and outlook are from BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2 for the matching SOC code and are blank where BLS publishes no line item.

How this was measured

Deal With External Customers or the Public in General (O*NET element 4.C.1.b.1.f). The question put to incumbents: “How important is it to deal with external customers (as in retail sales) or the public in general (as in police work) in this job?”

  1. 1

    Not important at all

  2. 2

    Fairly important

  3. 3

    Important

  4. 4

    Very important

  5. 5

    Extremely important

894 of 894 occupations have a published, unsuppressed value for this element. The percentile beside each occupation is its position among them.

The full method, including how ties are broken and what the data cannot tell you, is on the methodology page.

Narrow the list with BLS data

Each variant keeps the same measure and restricts the occupations by a published BLS threshold. A variant exists only where the restriction actually changes the list rather than the heading; the combinations that left the answer much as it was were not published.

Combine this with other conditions

The explorer ranks all occupations on any set of measures you choose, with the same values and the same arithmetic as this page.

Open the explorer with this selection

This page includes information from the O*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. RoleSprint has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. Wage, education and outlook figures are reproduced from BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

What to do next

These rankings describe occupations in general. The next question is whether a specific opening in one of them actually matches what you can show, and that is answered by comparing the posting with your resume.

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