Nevada Faces The Highest Automation Job Risk. Nearly Half of Its Workforce Could be Impacted.

Nearly half of Nevada's jobs are in occupations classified as highly susceptible to automation, putting the state at the top of a new national ranking and highlighting the exposure of workers who serve meals, sell merchandise, and handle routine transactions.

The analysis by CJS Automation, a British industrial automation parts supplier, places 48.79% of Nevada's covered employment in high-risk occupations, representing 718,030 jobs. That compares with 41.47% nationally, a gap of 7.32 percentage points.

The findings measure potential exposure rather than predicted layoffs. They do not establish that nearly half of Nevada's workers will lose their jobs or specify if or when employers might automate their duties.

Nevada's largest high-risk occupations include fast food and counter workers, accounting for 45,850 jobs; retail salespersons, with 43,920; and waiters and waitresses, with 42,520. Together, those three categories represent 132,290 positions, illustrating how heavily customer-facing work contributes to the state's ranking.

Las Vegas also leads the metropolitan ranking. Among 36 metropolitan areas with at least one million jobs, 49.99% of its covered employment falls into high-risk occupations. San Jose has the lowest share, at 31.45%, according to the company's analysis.

South Dakota follows Nevada closely in the state ranking, with 48.65% of covered jobs classified as high risk. Indiana ranks third at 47.57%, followed by North Dakota at 47.16% and Mississippi at 47.14%.

The occupations driving exposure vary geographically. Indiana's largest high-risk category is laborers who move freight and stock by hand, with 103,200 jobs. In North Dakota, heavy truck drivers account for the largest category, with 11,870 positions.

Iowa, Alabama, South Carolina, Wyoming and Tennessee complete the 10 most exposed states, each with more than 45% of covered employment in high-risk occupations. To construct the ranking, CJS Automation combined employment estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics with automation probabilities from Oxford researchers Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne.

The Oxford paper, first published in 2013, assessed 702 occupations. CJS classified occupations with automation probabilities above 70% as high risk. Its matched occupations account for 95.71% of U.S. employment, meaning the reported percentages describe the jobs covered by the analysis.

Each occupation also receives the same risk score regardless of location. Nevada's lead therefore reflects its mix of occupations, rather than evidence that businesses there are adopting automation faster. The District of Columbia, included alongside the states, has the lowest exposure at 25.14%. Massachusetts follows at 34.95%, ahead of New York at 36.08% and Maryland at 37.16%.

Virginia and Washington also appear among the least exposed jurisdictions in this ranking. Their placement underscores why readers should distinguish this assessment of occupational automation from studies focused specifically on generative artificial intelligence.

Nationally, CJS places approximately 61.7 million jobs in high-risk occupations. Retail salespersons, fast food and counter workers, and cashiers account for the largest categories, collectively exceeding 10.8 million positions.

Johnathan Craddock, director at CJS Automation, argued that workers' existing experience could help them move into technical roles. "A machine can take that task over, but somebody still has to keep it running and fix it when it stops, which is skilled work," he said in the supplied statement.