Colorado › Occupations › SOC 35-0000 · One of the 22 major groups
Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations
Across the 16 of this group's 17 occupations with published Colorado employment, 269,680 Coloradans work in food preparation and serving related occupations (one more occupation has no published Colorado estimate, so the true total is somewhat higher). Weighted by those published jobs, the group's mean exposure score is 14.2 of 100, and 0.0% of the jobs are in occupations where most or a large minority of tasks overlap with AI capabilities assessed in 2023.
Fast Food and Counter Workers; Waiters and Waitresses; Cooks, Restaurant — the largest of this group's 17 occupations in Colorado.
Every statewide figure on this page is computed directly on published BLS OEWS Colorado state data — a different basis from the county estimates elsewhere on this site, which model occupation mixes from industry mix. The one county table below is labeled accordingly.
- Published CO employment
- 269,680 across 16 of 17 occupations · OEWS 2025
- Employment-weighted mean score
- 14.2 0–100 scale · published statewide data only
- High + substantial share
- 0.0% of the group's published jobs · score ≥ 45 of 100
- CO median wages
- $35,710–$65,400 range across the 16 occupations with published medians · annual, 2025
Plate I
Tier mix within the group
How this group's 17 occupations — and its 269,680 published Colorado jobs — split across the four task-overlap tiers (cuts at 60/45/30 on the 0–100 score scale).
| Tier | Occupations | Published CO jobs | Share of published jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| high overlap | 0 | 0 | 0.0% |
| substantial overlap | 0 | 0 | 0.0% |
| some overlap | 1 | 9,490 | 3.5% |
| little overlap | 16 | 260,190 | 96.5% |
Plate II
The ten largest occupations in this group
| Occupation | Tier | Score | CO jobs | CO median wage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | little overlap | 11.5 | 82,010 | $36,270 |
| Waiters and Waitresses | little overlap | 22.4 | 40,680 | $44,860 |
| Cooks, Restaurant | little overlap | 12.2 | 30,600 | $41,600 |
| First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers | little overlap | 25.6 | 25,510 | $50,550 |
| Bartenders | little overlap | 13.9 | 17,000 | $38,170 |
| Food Preparation Workers | little overlap | 4.6 | 12,080 | $38,960 |
| Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop | some overlap | 32.9 | 9,490 | $36,340 |
| Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria | little overlap | 8.6 | 9,440 | $42,500 |
| Cooks, Fast Food | little overlap | 2.6 | 9,220 | $36,900 |
| Dishwashers | little overlap | —‡ | 8,500 | $37,840 |
‡ the published rating is zero — below measurable task overlap, a rating floor rather than a claim of total safety; exact values are in the downloads.
Plate III
Where this work concentrates
The six counties where this group is the largest share of local jobs. These county figures are estimates — modeled from each county's industry mix, not published counts (how county estimates are built) — and a share of a small county's job base can rank above a metro county's much larger absolute employment.
| County | Est. share of county jobs | Est. group jobs | Data quality |
|---|---|---|---|
| Summit | 21.2% | 4,773 | Partially imputed estimate |
| San Juan | 21.0% | 94 | Heavily imputed estimate |
| San Miguel | 19.2% | 1,164 | Partially imputed estimate |
| Pitkin | 18.8% | 3,335 | Partially imputed estimate |
| Hinsdale | 18.8% | 57 | Partially imputed estimate |
| Archuleta | 17.6% | 860 | Partially imputed estimate |