Jobs with no phone calls
Plenty of people can handle talking in person and still dread the phone. O*NET rates how much each occupation involves telephone conversations. We took the lowest tenth and sorted by yearly openings, so the jobs you can actually get come first.
What the data shows
- Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand has the most openings of any job on the list, about 340,500 a year.
- Together the 40 jobs below average about 1,632,500 openings a year.
- 20% of these 40 jobs pay more than the US median wage of $50,980.
- 39 of the 40 need no more than a high school diploma to get started.
- 18 of the 40 are projected to shrink between 2025 and 2035.
The ranking
Click a column heading to sort. Pay is the national median annual wage. Growth is the projected change in employment from 2025 to 2035.
| # | Occupation | Phone score | Median pay | Typical entry education | Growth 2025-35 | Openings a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand | 38 | $40,240 | No formal educational credential | +1.8% | 340,500 |
| 2 | Cooks, Restaurant | 26 | $37,390 | No formal educational credential | +12.1% | 218,600 |
| 3 | Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners | 37 | $35,510 | No formal educational credential | +0.6% | 175,500 |
| 4 | Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers | 14 | $39,150 | No formal educational credential | +4.7% | 149,500 |
| 5 | Amusement and Recreation Attendants | 33 | $32,150 | No formal educational credential | +3.7% | 100,400 |
| 6 | Cooks, Fast Food | 31 | $30,890 | No formal educational credential | +0.6% | 86,400 |
| 7 | Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse | 35 | $35,660 | No formal educational credential | -2.4% | 72,500 |
| 8 | Dishwashers | 31 | $34,810 | No formal educational credential | -1.0% | 68,900 |
| 9 | Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders | 14 | $43,220 | High school diploma or equivalent | +4.1% | 41,400 |
| 10 | Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers | 29 | $53,750 | High school diploma or equivalent | +2.4% | 40,300 |
| 11 | Bakers | 32 | $37,160 | No formal educational credential | +5.5% | 36,500 |
| 12 | Machinists | 35 | $58,750 | High school diploma or equivalent | +1.0% | 26,100 |
| 13 | Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary | 37 | $42,910 | Bachelor's degree | +2.7% | 25,700 |
| 14 | Food Batchmakers | 35 | $42,290 | High school diploma or equivalent | +6.5% | 23,100 |
| 15 | Helpers--Production Workers | 10 | $39,070 | High school diploma or equivalent | -8.2% | 20,900 |
| 16 | Crossing Guards and Flaggers | 26 | $38,100 | No formal educational credential | +3.5% | 17,300 |
| 17 | Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders | 16 | $48,250 | High school diploma or equivalent | +2.5% | 15,300 |
| 18 | Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic | 27 | $44,350 | High school diploma or equivalent | -3.4% | 13,800 |
| 19 | Gambling Dealers | 10 | $34,320 | High school diploma or equivalent | +3.4% | 13,300 |
| 20 | Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic | 5 | $46,330 | High school diploma or equivalent | -10.5% | 13,200 |
| 21 | Computer Numerically Controlled Tool Operators | 30 | $50,690 | High school diploma or equivalent | -9.4% | 12,500 |
| 22 | Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic | 26 | $47,180 | High school diploma or equivalent | +0.6% | 11,600 |
| 23 | Sewing Machine Operators | 16 | $36,670 | No formal educational credential | -15.1% | 9,800 |
| 24 | Sheet Metal Workers | 27 | $61,800 | High school diploma or equivalent | +2.5% | 9,800 |
| 25 | Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders | 16 | $50,270 | High school diploma or equivalent | -3.6% | 9,000 |
| 26 | Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders | 27 | $48,990 | High school diploma or equivalent | -6.1% | 7,900 |
| 27 | Slaughterers and Meat Packers | 26 | $40,130 | No formal educational credential | +2.0% | 7,700 |
| 28 | Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators | 23 | $58,470 | No formal educational credential | -5.3% | 7,300 |
| 29 | Cabinetmakers and Bench Carpenters | 19 | $46,680 | High school diploma or equivalent | -2.9% | 6,900 |
| 30 | Structural Iron and Steel Workers | 38 | $62,780 | High school diploma or equivalent | +3.1% | 5,900 |
| 31 | Graders and Sorters, Agricultural Products | 20 | $35,730 | No formal educational credential | -3.4% | 5,800 |
| 32 | Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic | 25 | $47,720 | High school diploma or equivalent | +0.7% | 5,400 |
| 33 | Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders | 33 | $46,570 | High school diploma or equivalent | -0.9% | 5,400 |
| 34 | Structural Metal Fabricators and Fitters | 34 | $51,330 | High school diploma or equivalent | -6.2% | 4,800 |
| 35 | Sawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Wood | 30 | $42,770 | High school diploma or equivalent | -1.0% | 4,500 |
| 36 | Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic | 12 | $46,550 | High school diploma or equivalent | -10.8% | 4,500 |
| 37 | Machine Feeders and Offbearers | 20 | $41,220 | No formal educational credential | -13.1% | 4,000 |
| 38 | Aircraft Service Attendants | 37 | $40,450 | High school diploma or equivalent | +5.6% | 4,000 |
| 39 | Semiconductor Processing Technicians | 36 | $51,430 | High school diploma or equivalent | +8.2% | 3,400 |
| 40 | Aircraft Structure, Surfaces, Rigging, and Systems Assemblers | 31 | $65,380 | High school diploma or equivalent | -5.6% | 3,100 |
What to keep in mind
- O*NET does not measure remote work, so this page cannot tell you which of these jobs can be done from home. It only tells you how much phone work the job involves.
- O*NET scores describe what the job asks of workers. They do not measure personality, and they are not medical or psychological advice.
- Pay and growth are national figures. Local pay varies, and some occupations have small samples. We left out 5 occupations that O*NET flags as unreliable.
See every occupation in the full introvert jobs table.