Jobs where you work alone

O*NET, the US Department of Labor's occupation database, asks workers how much their job requires contact with other people, in person, by phone or any other way. Answers run from 1 (no contact) to 5 (constant contact). We sorted 743 occupations by that average and kept the 40 with the least contact.

Contact is not the same as teamwork. O*NET asks separately how important it is to work in a team, so we show both. A job can involve little day-to-day contact and still depend on a team.

What the data shows

Tool Grinders, Filers, and Sharpeners have the least contact of any ranked occupation: an average of 2.3 out of 5, closest to "occasional contact".
10 of the 40 still rate teamwork as very important or more (4 out of 5 or higher), so low contact does not always mean working on your own.
43% of these 40 jobs pay more than the US median wage of $50,980.
30 of the 40 typically need no more than a high school diploma to start.
25 of the 40 are projected to shrink between 2025 and 2035.
The best paid is Mathematicians at $126,710 a year.
13 of the 40 also appear on our list of jobs that don't require talking to people.

The ranking

Click a column heading to sort. Ratings are O*NET averages on a 1 to 5 scale; hover a heading for what it measures. Pay is the national median annual wage. Growth is the projected change in employment from 2025 to 2035.

#	Occupation	Contact	Teamwork	Face-to-face	Median pay	Typical entry education	Growth 2025-35	Projected openings a year
1	Tool Grinders, Filers, and Sharpeners	2.3	3.3	4.7	$50,060	High school diploma or equivalent	-6.8%	500
2	Craft Artists	2.6	1.9	3.1	$46,080	No formal educational credential	+2.0%	1,000
3	Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers	2.6	2.8	3.0	$39,150	No formal educational credential	+4.7%	149,500
4	Conveyor Operators and Tenders	2.7	4.2	4.3	$42,420	No formal educational credential	-2.6%	2,200
5	Meat, Poultry, and Fish Cutters and Trimmers	2.9	4.3	3.8	$38,300	No formal educational credential	+5.7%	17,000
6	Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators	3.0	2.6	3.2	$55,490	Bachelor's degree	-2.9%	2,200
7	Writers and Authors	3.1	2.7	3.0	$76,910	Bachelor's degree	-0.3%	11,900
8	Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	3.1	3.2	4.0	$46,330	High school diploma or equivalent	-10.5%	13,200
9	Economists	3.2	3.5	4.3	$124,720	Master's degree	+4.7%	1,100
10	Rock Splitters, Quarry	3.2	3.8	3.5	$48,740	No formal educational credential	+5.8%	400
11	Musical Instrument Repairers and Tuners	3.2	2.1	4.5	$46,420	High school diploma or equivalent	+1.9%	600
12	Dental Laboratory Technicians	3.2	4.1	4.4	$49,610	High school diploma or equivalent	-5.9%	3,600
13	Hydrologists	3.3	4.2	4.1	$96,600	Bachelor's degree	+1.5%	400
14	Furniture Finishers	3.3	3.8	3.9	$44,540	High school diploma or equivalent	-3.5%	1,500
15	Model Makers, Metal and Plastic	3.3	3.5	4.6	$63,340	High school diploma or equivalent	-17.3%	200
16	Animal Breeders	3.3	2.8	3.1	$51,130	High school diploma or equivalent	+3.0%	1,000
17	Mathematicians	3.4	3.4	4.3	$126,710	Master's degree	+0.6%	100
18	Textile Cutting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	3.4	3.5	4.7	$38,760	High school diploma or equivalent	-13.6%	900
19	Sewers, Hand	3.4	4.1	4.5	$36,480	No formal educational credential	-12.0%	600
20	Cutters and Trimmers, Hand	3.4	3.5	2.9	$38,020	No formal educational credential	-18.9%	500
21	Lathe and Turning Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	3.4	3.6	3.7	$50,620	High school diploma or equivalent	-11.3%	1,400
22	Geographers	3.4	3.8	4.3	$102,040	Bachelor's degree	-2.1%	100
23	Ophthalmic Laboratory Technicians	3.4	4.1	4.2	$39,460	High school diploma or equivalent	+2.2%	2,200
24	Etchers and Engravers	3.4	3.4	4.9	$43,310	High school diploma or equivalent	-0.7%	800
25	Pressers, Textile, Garment, and Related Materials	3.4	3.5	4.1	$35,060	No formal educational credential	-15.7%	2,200
26	Camera and Photographic Equipment Repairers	3.4	2.7	4.4	$52,720	High school diploma or equivalent	-15.5%	100
27	Pourers and Casters, Metal	3.4	3.2	4.4	$51,810	High school diploma or equivalent	-5.0%	400
28	Computer Numerically Controlled Tool Programmers	3.4	3.7	4.5	$68,120	Postsecondary nondegree award	+5.9%	2,700
29	Museum Technicians and Conservators	3.5	3.9	4.6	$51,440	Bachelor's degree	+3.6%	1,600
30	Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	3.5	3.5	4.8	$48,540	High school diploma or equivalent	-1.7%	2,300
31	Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse	3.5	3.4	4.6	$35,660	No formal educational credential	-2.4%	72,500
32	Metal-Refining Furnace Operators and Tenders	3.5	4.2	4.0	$54,430	High school diploma or equivalent	-2.9%	1,400
33	Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	3.5	3.5	4.3	$52,800	High school diploma or equivalent	-13.2%	1,000
34	Architectural and Civil Drafters	3.5	4.5	4.4	$66,150	Associate's degree	+5.2%	9,100
35	Motion Picture Projectionists	3.5	3.5	4.3	$38,270	No formal educational credential	-6.2%	300
36	Coating, Painting, and Spraying Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders	3.5	4.1	4.5	$48,250	High school diploma or equivalent	+2.5%	15,300
37	Paving, Surfacing, and Tamping Equipment Operators	3.5	3.7	4.3	$53,340	High school diploma or equivalent	-0.9%	3,100
38	Statisticians	3.5	4.4	4.3	$105,650	Master's degree	+11.0%	1,900
39	Forging Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic	3.5	2.7	4.8	$49,030	High school diploma or equivalent	-17.2%	600
40	Sewing Machine Operators	3.5	3.4	3.5	$36,670	No formal educational credential	-15.1%	9,800

What to keep in mind

Low contact does not mean nobody is around. The rating describes how much of the work involves dealing with others, not whether other people are in the building.
Contact is an amount scale; teamwork is an importance scale. The two are shown side by side, not combined.
O*NET ratings are averages of worker answers on a 1 to 5 scale. Some questions ask how much (contact), some how often (face-to-face, phone, public speaking, conflict, noise) and some how important (teamwork, customers). They are shown on their own scales.
The ratings 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. We ranked 743 of the 760 occupations in the data. The other 17 are left out: 13 because O*NET flags their ratings as unreliable or publishes no respondent count, and 4 because the BLS publishes no annual median wage for them.

See every occupation in the full introvert jobs table.

Common questions

Do these jobs mean working alone all day?

Not necessarily. The lowest contact average on the list is 2.3 out of 5, so even the most solitary job involves some contact with others.

Are these jobs only for introverts?

No. The ratings describe what the work asks of the people doing it, not anyone's personality. Introverts and extroverts can do any job on the list.

Where does the data come from?

Work ratings come from the O*NET 31.0 Database, where workers in each occupation answer questions about their job. Pay is the national median annual wage from BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. Growth, projected openings, entry education and training come from BLS Employment Projections 2025-35.