# Slaughterers and Meat Packers

US SOC code 51-3023. Markdown version of https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/51-3023

Also called: Meat packer, Slaughterer, Meat processing worker, Kill floor worker, Packing house worker.

## In brief

In May 2025, [BLS](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip) counted **69,950** US slaughterers and meat packers, with median pay of **$40,130** a year. The earliest figure here is [a Census count](https://usa.ipums.org/usa/volii/9050occup.shtml) of **72,000** from 1900, not measured the same way as today's count. The last full technology era for slaughterers and meat packers: Poultry automation + AI vision quality control, 2015 to 2022. In chicken processing, automation has reduced the labor intensity per bird since 2000, enabling higher throughput per plant while holding or reducing headcount at individual facilities.

## What the sources say

### Official outlook

BLS projects employment to grow 2% from 2025 to 2035. Source: [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=51-3023&ioType=o).

### AI exposure studies

- **0%** of this job's tasks are exposed to large language models. Not a forecast of job losses. [Eloundou and others, 2023](https://github.com/openai/GPTs-are-GPTs/blob/main/data/occ_level.csv)
- **0.6** estimated probability that the whole occupation could be computerised, over an unspecified number of years. Not a forecast of job losses. [Frey and Osborne, 2013](https://oms-www.files.svdcdn.com/production/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf)

Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35.

## Slaughterers and Meat Packers employment and pay by year

- On record since: 1865
- Latest US employment: 69,950 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [6]
- Latest US median pay: $40,130 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [16]
- Outlook: +2% by 2035. Source: BLS Employment Projections 2025-35 [35]

### In other countries

The latest figure each country's statistics agency publishes for this job. Each uses its own occupation definition, survey basis and currency, so the numbers are not directly comparable with each other or with the US figures.

- **Canada** (NOC 94141)
  - Employment, 2020: 15,860. Source: Statistics Canada Census 2021 [11]. Statistics Canada Census of Population 2021: number of persons with employment income in NOC 94141 Industrial butchers and meat cutters, poultry preparers and related workers, Canada, reference year 2020. A recipients basis (anyone with employment income during the year), slightly broader than a point-in-time employed count. Statistics Canada Open Licence.
  - Median pay, 2020: C$47,600. Source: Statistics Canada Census 2021 [19]. Statistics Canada Census of Population 2021 (Table 98-10-0586): median employment income for NOC 94141 Industrial butchers and meat cutters, poultry preparers and related workers, Canada, reference year 2020, full-year full-time workers (the basis comparable to the US OEWS full-time median). Statistics Canada Open Licence.

### All 30 years of cited US data

| Year | US employment | Annual pay (median unless marked) | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1900 | 72,000 | n/a | Decennial Census 1900 [1] |
| 1906 | 30,000 (estimate) | $450 (estimate) | Est., Upton Sinclair [2] |
| 1940 | 110,000 (estimate) | n/a | Est., Wikipedia [3] |
| 1945 | n/a | $2,400 (estimate) | Est., Wikipedia [13] |
| 1970 | 140,000 (estimate) | n/a | Est., BLS Monthly Labor Review [4] |
| 1975 | n/a | $14,500 (estimate) | Est., BLS Industry Wage Survey [14] |
| 1990 | 150,000 (estimate) | $18,500 (estimate) | Est., BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook (employment) [5]; Est., BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook (pay) [15] |
| 2003 | 122,490 | $20,420 | BLS OEWS May 2003 [6] |
| 2004 | 134,140 | $20,860 | BLS OEWS May 2004 [6] |
| 2005 | 132,000 | $21,220 | BLS OEWS May 2005 [6] |
| 2006 | 118,610 | $21,690 | BLS OEWS May 2006 [6] |
| 2007 | 110,020 | $22,500 | BLS OEWS May 2007 [6] |
| 2008 | 97,000 | $23,030 | BLS OEWS May 2008 [6] |
| 2009 | 97,530 | $23,490 | BLS OEWS May 2009 [6] |
| 2010 | 88,500 | $23,380 | BLS OEWS May 2010 [6] |
| 2011 | 80,110 | $23,490 | BLS OEWS May 2011 [6] |
| 2012 | 79,370 | $24,330 | BLS OEWS May 2012 [6] |
| 2013 | 82,070 | $24,980 | BLS OEWS May 2013 [6] |
| 2014 | 86,070 | $25,560 | BLS OEWS May 2014 [6] |
| 2015 | 80,250 | $25,650 | BLS OEWS May 2015 [6] |
| 2016 | 80,780 | $26,590 | BLS OEWS May 2016 [6] |
| 2017 | 77,570 | $27,530 | BLS OEWS May 2017 [6] |
| 2018 | 75,550 | $28,260 | BLS OEWS May 2018 [6] |
| 2019 | 73,390 | $29,230 | BLS OEWS May 2019 [6] |
| 2020 | 77,980 | $30,710 | BLS OEWS May 2020 (employment) [7]; BLS OEWS May 2020 (pay) [16] |
| 2021 | 86,450 | $29,900 | BLS OEWS May 2021 [6] |
| 2022 | 78,660 | $35,240 | BLS OEWS May 2022 [6] |
| 2023 | 71,310 | $38,160 | BLS OEWS May 2023 (employment) [8]; BLS OEWS May 2023 (pay) [16] |
| 2024 | 67,500 | $39,790 | BLS OEWS May 2024 [6] |
| 2025 | 69,950 | $40,130 | BLS OEWS May 2025 [6] |

## Sources (99)

### Employment series

1. [IPUMS USA — 1900 Census occupational data; "slaughterers and butchers" occupation category; Union Stockyards employment history from "The Union Stock Yards and Transit Company of Chicago" annual report](https://usa.ipums.org/usa/volii/9050occup.shtml), IPUMS / University of Minnesota
2. [Upton Sinclair — "The Jungle" (1906); Chicago Historical Society records on Union Stockyards employment, 1900-1906; Louise Carroll Wade, "Chicago's Pride: The Stockyards, Packingtown, and Environs in the Nineteenth Century" (1987)](https://archive.org/details/jungle00sinc), Project Gutenberg / Internet Archive
3. [Wikipedia — "United Packinghouse Workers of America" (UPWA-CIO organizing drives 1937-1943 at Swift/Armour/Wilson/Cudahy; Big Four plant employment scale circa 1940)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Packinghouse_Workers_of_America), Wikipedia
4. [BLS Monthly Labor Review — "Employment and Wages in the Meat Packing Industry" (1970s series); Jimmy Skaggs, "Prime Cut: Livestock Raising and Meatpacking in the United States, 1607-1983" (1986)](https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/home.htm), Bureau of Labor Statistics
5. [BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — "Meat Packing Workers" (1990-91 edition); Hardy Green, "On Strike at Hormel: The Struggle for a Democratic Labor Movement" (1990)](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/production/butchers-and-meat-cutters.htm), Bureau of Labor Statistics
6. BLS OEWS, national cross-industry estimates (flat file), Bureau of Labor Statistics. Editions: [2003](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm03nat.zip), [2004](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm04nat.zip), [2005](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm05nat.zip), [2006](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm06nat.zip), [2007](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm07nat.zip), [2008](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm08nat.zip), [2009](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm09nat.zip), [2010](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm10nat.zip), [2011](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm11nat.zip), [2012](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm12nat.zip), [2013](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm13nat.zip), [2014](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm14nat.zip), [2015](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm15nat.zip), [2016](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm16nat.zip), [2017](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm17nat.zip), [2018](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm18nat.zip), [2019](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm19nat.zip), [2021](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm21nat.zip), [2022](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm22nat.zip), [2024](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm24nat.zip), [2025](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip)
7. [BLS OEWS May 2020 — 51-3023 Slaughterers and Meat Packers (national employment estimate); CDC MMWR — "COVID-19 Among Workers in Meat and Poultry Processing Facilities — 19 States, April 2020" (July 10, 2020)](https://www.bls.gov/oes/2020/may/oes513023.htm), Bureau of Labor Statistics
8. [BLS OEWS May 2023 — 51-3023 Slaughterers and Meat Packers (national employment and wage estimates)](https://www.bls.gov/oes/2023/may/oes513023.htm), Bureau of Labor Statistics
9. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2006, Table 97-563-XCB2006069 (Wage and salary statistics by occupation, NOC-S 2006), income reference year 2005](https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/tbt/Rp-eng.cfm?LANG=E&PID=96285), Statistics Canada
10. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2016, Table 98-400-X2016356 (Occupation by employment income statistics, NOC 2016), income reference year 2015](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/98-400-X2016356), Statistics Canada
11. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2021, Table 98-10-0586 (Employment income statistics by occupation unit group, NOC 2021), income reference year 2020](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=9810058601), Statistics Canada

### Wage series

12. [BLS — "Wages in the Slaughtering and Meat Packing Industry, 1906" (BLS Bulletin 47, 1904 survey data); Upton Sinclair "The Jungle" Chapter 11 (wage data for packinghouse workers circa 1904-1906)](https://archive.org/details/jungle00sinc), Internet Archive / Project Gutenberg
13. [Wikipedia — "United Packinghouse Workers of America" (UPWA contract settlements with Swift, Armour, Wilson and Cudahy; union-era wage improvements 1940s); Human Rights Watch — "Blood, Sweat, and Fear" (2005, meatpacking wages 15-19% above manufacturing average through 1960-1980, contextualizing the union-era peak)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Packinghouse_Workers_of_America), Wikipedia / Human Rights Watch
14. [BLS Industry Wage Survey — "Meat Packing Plants, 1975" (BLS Bulletin 1885); UFCW pattern bargaining wage history — real-wage peak for packinghouse workers in the union era](https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/home.htm), Bureau of Labor Statistics
15. [BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — "Meat Packing Workers" (1990-91 edition, wage context post-IBP decentralization); Lance Compa, "Blood, Sweat, and Fear: Workers' Rights in U.S. Meat and Poultry Plants" (HRW 2004, historical wage data)](https://www.hrw.org/report/2005/01/24/blood-sweat-and-fear/workers-rights-us-meat-and-poultry-plants), Human Rights Watch
16. BLS OEWS, national cross-industry estimates (flat file), Bureau of Labor Statistics. Editions: [2003](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm03nat.zip), [2004](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm04nat.zip), [2005](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm05nat.zip), [2006](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm06nat.zip), [2007](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm07nat.zip), [2008](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm08nat.zip), [2009](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm09nat.zip), [2010](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm10nat.zip), [2011](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm11nat.zip), [2012](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm12nat.zip), [2013](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm13nat.zip), [2014](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm14nat.zip), [2015](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm15nat.zip), [2016](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm16nat.zip), [2017](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm17nat.zip), [2018](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm18nat.zip), [2019](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm19nat.zip), [2020](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm20nat.zip), [2021](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm21nat.zip), [2022](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm22nat.zip), [2023](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm23nat.zip), [2024](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm24nat.zip), [2025](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip)
17. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2006, Table 97-563-XCB2006069 (Wage and salary statistics by occupation, NOC-S 2006), income reference year 2005](https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/tbt/Rp-eng.cfm?LANG=E&PID=96285), Statistics Canada
18. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2016, Table 98-400-X2016356 (Occupation by employment income statistics, NOC 2016), income reference year 2015](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/catalogue/98-400-X2016356), Statistics Canada
19. [Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2021, Table 98-10-0586 (Employment income statistics by occupation unit group, NOC 2021), income reference year 2020](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=9810058601), Statistics Canada

### Tool eras

20. [Wikipedia — "Assembly line" (disassembly line section: Swift's Chicago slaughterhouse conveyor chain, William "Pa" Klann's visit and its influence on Ford's assembly line)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_line), Wikipedia
21. [Wikipedia — "Union Stock Yards" (Chicago 1865 opening, employment scale, packinghouse geography)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Stock_Yards), Wikipedia
22. [Wikipedia — "Federal Meat Inspection Act" (1906, Roosevelt signature, Sinclair/Neill-Reynolds report context, USDA inspection requirements)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Meat_Inspection_Act), Wikipedia
23. [Wikipedia — "The Jungle" (Upton Sinclair, 1906, seven weeks in the Yards, adulterated sausage, political impact)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle), Wikipedia
24. [Wikipedia — "United Packinghouse Workers of America" (UPWA-CIO, 1943 charter, racial integration strategy, pattern bargaining with Big Four)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Packinghouse_Workers_of_America), Wikipedia
25. [Wikipedia — "Chicago race riot of 1919" (Black strikebreakers in packinghouses, labor-race dynamics that shaped UPWA organizing strategy)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_race_riot_of_1919), Wikipedia
26. [Wikipedia — "IBP, Inc." (Iowa Beef Packers — founding 1961, non-union model, boxed beef innovation, rural decentralization, collapse of pattern bargaining)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBP,_Inc.), Wikipedia
27. [Eric Schlosser — "Fast Food Nation" (2001), Chapter 8 "The Most Dangerous Job" (IBP wage collapse, rural plant strategy, injury rates in the 1990s)](https://archive.org/details/fastfoodnation00eric), Internet Archive
28. [Wikipedia — "Hazard analysis and critical control points" (HACCP system overview; USDA and FDA mandate for meat and juice; seven-principle framework; 1996 USDA Pathogen Reduction/HACCP rule)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazard_analysis_and_critical_control_points), Wikipedia
29. [Human Rights Watch — "Blood, Sweat, and Fear: Workers' Rights in U.S. Meat and Poultry Plants" (January 2005, comprehensive analysis of injury rates, ergonomic tools, OSHA enforcement)](https://www.hrw.org/report/2005/01/24/blood-sweat-and-fear/workers-rights-us-meat-and-poultry-plants), Human Rights Watch
30. [USDA Economic Research Service — "Meat Price Spreads" and "Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook" (poultry automation investment, 2014-2020 period)](https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/animal-products/cattle-beef), USDA Economic Research Service
31. [Frey & Osborne (2013) — "The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation?" (SOC 51-3023 probability ~0.93, "manual dexterity" bottleneck analysis for slaughter tasks)](https://oms-www.files.svdcdn.com/production/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf), Oxford Martin School
32. [CDC MMWR — "COVID-19 Among Workers in Meat and Poultry Processing Facilities — 19 States, April 2020" (23,345 cases, 87 deaths, 239 facilities; July 10, 2020)](https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6927e2.htm), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
33. [GovInfo — Executive Order 13917, "Delegating Authority Under the Defense Production Act of 1950 With Respect to Food Supply Chain Resources During the National Emergency Caused by the Outbreak of COVID-19" (April 28, 2020)](https://www.govinfo.gov/link/cpd/executiveorder/13917), U.S. Government Publishing Office / GovInfo
34. [Wikipedia — "Smithfield Foods" (COVID-19 section: Sioux Falls SD plant closure April 12, 2020; 1,300+ worker infections and four worker deaths by September 2020; plant processed 4-5% of US pork supply)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smithfield_Foods), Wikipedia

### Forecasts and exposure studies

35. [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35, National Employment Matrix: 51-3023 Slaughterers and meat packers (2025: 71.2 thousand; 2035: 72.6 thousand; +2.0%)](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=51-3023&ioType=o), Bureau of Labor Statistics
36. [Frey & Osborne (2013), "The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation?", Appendix (SOC 51-3023 Slaughterers and Meat Packers: probability 0.6, rank 333 of 702)](https://oms-www.files.svdcdn.com/production/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf), Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford
37. [Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), "GPTs are GPTs", occupation-level exposure data occ\_level.csv (O\*NET-SOC 51-3023.00, human-rated β 0)](https://github.com/openai/GPTs-are-GPTs/blob/main/data/occ_level.csv), OpenAI

### Historical notes

38. [Wikipedia — "Union Stock Yards" (December 25, 1865 opening, Swift and Armour operations, disassembly-line development)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Stock_Yards), Wikipedia
39. [Wikipedia — "The Jungle" (Upton Sinclair 1906, "aimed at the public's heart" quote, political impact, Federal Meat Inspection Act)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle), Wikipedia
40. [Wikipedia — "United Packinghouse Workers of America" (1943 CIO charter, racial integration strategy, Ralph Helstein, Addie Wyatt, pattern bargaining)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Packinghouse_Workers_of_America), Wikipedia
41. [Wikipedia — "IBP, Inc." (Iowa Beef Packers, founded 1961, Currier Holman, boxed beef innovation, rural plant strategy, collapse of union power)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBP,_Inc.), Wikipedia
42. [Wikipedia — "Austin, Minnesota Hormel strike" (P-9 local, 1985-86, UFCW internal conflict, permanent replacements, pattern bargaining collapse)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985%E2%80%9386_Hormel_strike), Wikipedia
43. [Human Rights Watch — "Blood, Sweat, and Fear: Workers' Rights in U.S. Meat and Poultry Plants" (January 24, 2005)](https://www.hrw.org/report/2005/01/24/blood-sweat-and-fear/workers-rights-us-meat-and-poultry-plants), Human Rights Watch
44. [CDC MMWR — "COVID-19 Among Workers in Meat and Poultry Processing Facilities — 19 States, April 2020" (Vol. 69, No. 27, July 10, 2020)](https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6927e2.htm), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
45. [Reuters — "Tyson Foods turns to robotics and AI as it cuts thousands of workers" (January 30, 2024 — plant closures, automation investment, 2,000+ job cuts)](https://www.reuters.com/business/tyson-foods-turns-robotics-ai-it-cuts-thousands-workers-2024-01-30/), Reuters

### Predecessors & successors

46. [Wikipedia — "Union Stock Yards" (immigrant labor composition, Chicago packinghouses 1865-1900)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Stock_Yards), Wikipedia
47. [Wikipedia — "The Jungle" (Upton Sinclair, Lithuanian immigrant protagonist Jurgis Rudkus, Eastern European workforce composition)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle), Wikipedia
48. [Wikipedia — "Great Migration (African American)" (Black workers recruited to Chicago packinghouses during WWI labor shortage and as strikebreakers 1919)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Migration_%28African_American%29), Wikipedia
49. [Wikipedia — "Meatpacking industry" (Hispanic/Latino workforce composition: Mexican and Central/South American workers dominant from 1980s onward, shift from earlier Eastern European and Black migrant workforce)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meatpacking_industry), Wikipedia

### Present-day analysis

- [O\*NET OnLine 30.3 — Slaughterers and Meat Packers (51-3023.00)](https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/51-3023.00), accessed 2026-06-05
- [Frontiers in Robotics and AI — Review of robotic and automated systems in meat processing (2025)](https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/robotics-and-ai/articles/10.3389/frobt.2025.1578318/full), accessed 2026-06-05
- [BLS OEWS May 2025 — Slaughterers and Meat Packers (51-3023) (national flat file)](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip), accessed 2026-10-07
- [OSHA — New Inspection Guidance for Animal Slaughtering and Processing Establishments (Oct 2024)](https://www.osha.gov/news/newsreleases/osha-trade-release/20241016), accessed 2026-06-05
- [Eloundou et al. 2024 — GPTs are GPTs (Science)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130), accessed 2026-06-05
- [Mayekawa — HAMDAS-RX automated ham-deboning system](https://americas.mayekawa.com/mna/applications/meat/), accessed 2026-06-05
- [The National Provisioner — Chef Robotics expands into meatpacking with tray assembly automation (2025)](https://www.provisioneronline.com/articles/120455-chef-robotics-expands-into-meatpacking-with-tray-assembly-automation), accessed 2026-06-05
- [Scott Automation — X-Ray Primal System for beef carcass cutting](https://scottautomation.com/en-us/products/meat), accessed 2026-06-05

How to read these figures: https://futurehistory.earth/methodology. Every figure links to its own source; gaps stay gaps.