Key findings

1
Within the same kind of work, roles that state an hourly rate drew 13.1 times the apply clicks per open role of roles that state none, the strongest association measured (4 kinds of work compared).
Figure 1
2
Pooled across kinds of work, roles that state an hourly rate drew 8.7 times the apply clicks per open role of roles that state none, but within the same kind of work 13.1 times the clicks per open role: they are concentrated in kinds of work that draw fewer applicants per role.
Figure 1
3
In their first week, roles drew 5.94 times the clicks per open role of their kind of work's average; listed more than three months earlier, 1.06 times, a gap that partly reflects the site's own recency ranking.
Figure 3

Figure 1

What goes with more applicants, compared within each kind of work

Which traits of a robot training role draw more apply clicks per open role than similar roles without them?

Trait	Within kind (with / without)	All kinds pooled	Roles with the trait	Kinds of work compared	Compared with
States an hourly rate	13.14x	8.73x	138	4	Roles that state none
Title of 9 words or moreSmall sample	n/a	2.64x	22	0	Roles with 4 words or fewer
Listed less than 14 days earlierSmall sample	n/a	13.76x	116	1	Roles listed before that
Title says part-timeSmall sample	n/a	1.01x	35	1	Roles without it
Title names a night, swing or weekend shiftSmall sample	n/a	1.73x	44	1	Roles whose title names none
Pay in the top third of its kindSmall sample	n/a	1.02x	37	0	Roles in the bottom third
Open only to US residentsSmall sample	n/a	0.04x	423	0	Roles open worldwide
Title names a vehicle, drone or vesselSmall sample	n/a	0.19x	374	1	Roles whose title names none
Open worldwideSmall sample	n/a	34.99x	7	0	Roles open only to listed countries

Sample. 187 apply clicks on 847 roles listed at some point from 12 Sep 2026 to 9 Oct 2026, over 2,666 open role-weeks.

Rows are marked, and not ranked in the findings, when either side has fewer than 30 clicks, fewer than 10 roles or fewer than 3 roles open on an average day; the same rule marks the rows of every figure in this report.

Within kind: in each kind of work with at least 10 roles and 30 open role-weeks on both sides, apply clicks per open role a week with the trait over the same rate without it; then the average across those kinds, weighted by the open role-weeks with the trait. 1.00x is no difference; a trait needs two such kinds of work. Pooled: the same ratio with every kind of work together. Where the two disagree, the trait sits in kinds of work that draw more (or fewer) applicants per role.

Pay thirds are formed within each kind of work, from the roles listed in the window that state an hourly rate (ties share a third). A listing's age is taken at the middle of the days it was open in the window; roles with no known listing date are left out of that comparison. Vehicles are read from the title with the vocabulary of the robots and equipment report, shifts and part-time with that of the job-titles report.

Title words often follow an employer's posting template (shift and part-time words, for example, appear in the titles of a handful of employers), so within a kind of work a title trait also compares the employers that use it with those that do not.

Part of every association here is this site's own ranking: the default order puts recently listed roles, roles that state their pay and roles at partner networks higher, and shows each visitor the roles open in their country first. A ratio describes the people who use this site, not a cause.

Clicks on an employer's general sign-up link (148 in the window) have no role and are left out.

Source. RobotTraining.jobs Research, What Draws Applicants to Robot Training Roles, live data.

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Figure 2

Applicants by pay level, within each kind of work

Do better-paid roles draw more applicants than other roles of the same kind?

Pay level within its kind of work	Within-kind index	Clicks per role a week	Median rate, per hour	Roles	Open role-weeks	Clicks
Lowest fifth of its kind's ratesSmall sample	5.73x	0.13	$25	14	40	5
Second fifthSmall sample	1.95x	0.10	$22	30	80	8
Middle fifthSmall sample	0.00x	0.00	$31	6	17	0
Fourth fifthSmall sample	3.38x	0.11	$35	24	74	8
Highest fifthSmall sample	8.45x	0.31	$37	19	45	14
No hourly rate statedSmall sample	0.41x	0.01	n/a	529	1,666	18

Sample. Roles listed from 12 Sep 2026 to 9 Oct 2026 in the 3 kinds of work with at least 25 roles stating an hourly rate (622 roles, 53 apply clicks).

Within-kind index: the clicks the group drew over the clicks it would have drawn at the average rate of its own kinds of work. 1.00x is that average; the rows of this figure add up to the same clicks observed and expected.

Fifths are formed within each kind of work from the advertised rates of its roles listed in the window, each role once, ties sharing a fifth; the median rate is across kinds, for scale.

Source. RobotTraining.jobs Research, What Draws Applicants to Robot Training Roles, live data.

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Figure 3

Applicants by listing age, within each kind of work

How much more do new listings draw than older roles of the same kind?

Listing age	Within-kind index	Clicks per role a week	Roles	Open role-weeks	Clicks
First week	5.94x	0.61	70	60	37
Second week	2.45x	0.33	46	92	30
Weeks 3 and 4Small sample	1.20x	0.09	59	155	14
1 to 3 monthsSmall sample	0.25x	0.02	354	1,279	26
More than 3 months	1.06x	0.04	304	1,039	39
Listing date unknown	2.89x	1.01	14	41	41

Sample. 187 apply clicks on 847 roles listed at some point from 12 Sep 2026 to 9 Oct 2026, over 2,666 open role-weeks.

A listing's age is taken at the middle of the days it was open in the window, from its listing date (the job board's posting date, or else its first day in the feed).

Within-kind index: clicks over the clicks expected at the average rate of the role's own kind of work; the rows add up to the same clicks observed and expected.

Recency is a lever of this site's own default order, which puts recently listed roles first, so this figure reads the site's ranking as much as applicants' preference. A newer role is also more likely to be one people have not applied to yet.

Source. RobotTraining.jobs Research, What Draws Applicants to Robot Training Roles, live data.

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Figure 4

Applicants by who may apply, within each kind of work

Do roles open worldwide draw more applicants than country-limited roles of the same kind?

Location rule	Within-kind index	Clicks per role a week	Roles	Open role-weeks	Clicks
Open worldwideSmall sample	4.02x	1.98	7	19	37
Only the United States	0.92x	0.07	423	1,217	85
Only other listed countries	0.75x	0.05	410	1,421	64
No rule statedSmall sample	4.79x	0.11	7	9	1

Sample. 187 apply clicks on 847 roles listed at some point from 12 Sep 2026 to 9 Oct 2026, over 2,666 open role-weeks.

Only the United States: a rule that names the United States and no other country. Only other listed countries: every other include-list, whatever the countries.

Within-kind index: clicks over the clicks expected at the average rate of the role's own kind of work.

Each visitor is shown the roles open in their own country first, so a country-limited role is ranked first only for visitors from its countries.

Source. RobotTraining.jobs Research, What Draws Applicants to Robot Training Roles, live data.

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Figure 5

Stating the pay, kind by kind

In which kinds of work do roles that state an hourly rate draw more applicants than roles that do not?

Kind of work	With / without	Clicks per role a week, rate stated	No rate stated	Roles with / without	Clicks with / without
Robot Fleet OperationsSmall sample	30.73x	0.34	0.01	25 / 108	22 / 3
Data & Demonstration CollectionSmall sample	14.03x	0.55	0.04	18 / 48	30 / 7
AV & Drone OperatorsSmall sample	10.38x	0.06	0.01	43 / 332	7 / 7
Robot TeleoperationSmall sample	2.26x	0.08	0.03	25 / 89	6 / 8

Sample. Roles listed from 12 Sep 2026 to 9 Oct 2026 in the 4 of 7 kinds of work with at least 10 roles and 30 open role-weeks both stating and not stating an hourly rate.

Rows with fewer than 30 clicks, 10 roles or 3 roles open on an average day on either side are marked: a few popular roles can move them.

Whether a role states its pay is mostly set by the employer's posting template, so within a kind of work this also compares employers with one another.

Source. RobotTraining.jobs Research, What Draws Applicants to Robot Training Roles, live data.

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Method and definitions

Apply clicks made on RobotTraining.jobs, joined to the role clicked and the days each role was open, with each role's pay, location rule, listing date and title from the public job boards this site reads every day. Every figure is computed by one database query over the window shown, the same query for the live report and for every edition. Each figure states its sample beneath it.

Apply click: A click on an apply button on RobotTraining.jobs that opens an employer's application page for one role. Made by a person: automated traffic is set aside as it is recorded. Clicks on an employer's general sign-up link have no role and are left out.
Open role-weeks: For every role, the days of the window it was listed, divided by 7 and summed. Only roles listed at some point in the window count.
Clicks per open role a week: Apply clicks divided by open role-weeks.
Within-kind ratio: For each kind of work with at least 10 roles and 30 open role-weeks both with and without the trait (and a click without it), clicks per open role a week with the trait over the same rate without it; then the average across those kinds, weighted by the open role-weeks with the trait. A trait needs two such kinds. 1.00x is no difference.
Pooled ratio: The same ratio with every kind of work together. Where it differs from the within-kind ratio, the trait is concentrated in kinds of work that draw more or fewer applicants per role.
Within-kind index: For a group of roles, the apply clicks they drew over the clicks they would have drawn at the average rate of their own kinds of work. 1.00x is that average.
Pay thirds and fifths: Formed within each kind of work from the advertised hourly rates of its roles listed in the window, each role once, ties sharing a band. Fifths need at least 25 priced roles in the kind.
Listing age: Days from a role's listing date (the job board's posting date, or else its first day in the feed) to the middle of the days it was open in the window. A new listing is under 14 days old.
Location rule: Read from each posting's location text: open worldwide, worldwide except listed countries, only listed countries (US-only when the United States is the one country), or no rule stated.
Vehicle, shift, part-time: Named in the title, matched as whole words against the vocabularies of the robots and equipment and job-titles reports.
Kind of work: Each role is classified from its title and description into one of the seven kinds of robot training work this site tracks, from robot teleoperation and demonstration collection to egocentric capture, embodied-AI annotation, robot evaluation, fleet operations and AV and drone operation. Every kind links to its own page.
Window: Live: the last 28 complete days, in UTC. Edition: one calendar month, in UTC.

What this data cannot tell you

Part of every association is this site's own ranking: the default order puts recently listed roles, roles that state their pay and roles at partner programs higher, and each visitor sees the roles open in their country first. The listing-age, pay and location figures read that ranking as much as applicants' preferences.
A ratio is an association among the people who use RobotTraining.jobs, not a cause: traits travel together (a new role is often also a night shift), and the comparison holds only the kind of work fixed.
Title words often follow an employer's posting template, so within a kind of work a title trait also compares the employers that use it with those that do not.
Clicks per role are few, so a ratio can move with a handful of popular roles from one window to the next; read a trait across editions before relying on it.
An apply click starts an application. It is not a submitted application, an acceptance or a hire, and one person can click several roles.
Employers that recruit without a public job board are not counted.

How the job feeds are read and roles are classified: site methodology. How fresh, complete and consistent the data is, checked every day: data quality and coverage.

Editions

The live report covers the last 28 complete days and changes every day. Each complete month is also published as an edition, frozen two days after the month ends, so a figure you cite from an edition never moves.

Live dataLast 28 complete days, recomputed daily

Cite and reuse

Free to quote, chart and republish under CC BY 4.0 with a link to this page. Live figures change daily: cite a monthly edition for numbers that will read the same later, or keep the access date.

Citation

RobotTraining.jobs (2026). What Draws Applicants to Robot Training Roles (live data, 12 Sep 2026 to 9 Oct 2026). https://robottraining.jobs/research/what-draws-applicants-to-robot-training-roles (accessed 10 Oct 2026)

BibTeX

@misc{robottrainingjobs_what_draws_applicants_to_robot_training_roles_live,
  author = {{RobotTraining.jobs}},
  title = {What Draws Applicants to Robot Training Roles (live data, 12 Sep 2026 to 9 Oct 2026)},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://robottraining.jobs/research/what-draws-applicants-to-robot-training-roles}},
  note = {Accessed 10 Oct 2026},
}

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