Labor

!!UNKNOWN!!  · xTATTEREDx  · +FINE+  · *SUPERIOR*  · ≡EXCEPTIONAL≡  · ☼MASTERWORK☼

A dwarf's labor preferences define the tasks/jobs that he or she is allowed to do, whether it is food hauling, mining, hunting, or any of dozens of other tasks. For instance, only a dwarf with the wood cutting labor enabled will cut down trees whenever trees are designated to be cut.

Note that a labor is not a "job", nor a "skill". A job is the actual task of doing something, and a skill is the experience that determines how fast a job gets done, and/or the quality of any finished product (specifics vary with skill/job), while a labor preference simply designates whether a dwarf is allowed do that sort of job or not. You can view a list of all current, queued, and suspended jobs on the jobs menu. A list of what job each dwarf is currently performing is visible on the units menu.

Once designated as a labor preference, a single skill can possibly be applied to many different jobs. For instance, a dwarf with the bone carving labor designated might carve a totem out of a skull, craft bone practice bolts for a crossbow, create bone armor, or carve bone crafts to trade. Each of these is a different possible job allowed by designating the associated labor, which in each of these cases is governed by the "bone carving" skill.

Note that many labor preferences, especially hauling, have no associated skill, do not generate experience, and do not improve with practice.

The mining, wood cutting, and hunting labors require the dwarf to either pick up and wield a pick, battle axe, or crossbow. For this reason, a dwarf cannot be assigned to any combination of mining, wood cutting, or hunting at the same time. Additionally, the assignment of these tools overrides any uniform assigned to a dwarf's squad, so military dwarves should never be assigned any of the aforementioned labors.

Jobs that are not labors: eating, drinking, sleeping, going on break, partying, cleaning themselves, pulling levers, and resting. A few things are listed as "No Job" but can be considered labors in a different sense: running scared, not having a path to anyplace useful, and being insane.

Viewing labors

Utilities

You may have noticed that the UI for managing dwarves is a bit difficult to use. If you are using a supported operating system, Dwarf Therapist and DFHack can make this much easier.

To change a dwarf's labor preferences, access the labor screen by viewing the dwarf, then select preferences and labor. Use + and - to move the cursor up and down to highlight different categories or skills to enable or disable.

Using u can help you locate dwarves. Select a dwarf, hit c for "zoom to creature" and you'll automatically be placed in view mode on that dwarf. Use p-l to get to the labor configuration menu.

Labors are divided into skill trees - for instance, accessing metalsmithing allows you to enable various jobs that are related to working with metal, such as weaponsmithing and armorsmithing.

A category is dark gray if there are no labors under it enabled, light gray if there are some jobs enabled, and white if all jobs are enabled. (These distinctions can sometimes be very hard to tell apart in the default color scheme.)

The Woodcutting, Mining and Hunting labors are mutually exclusive, since they each require the dwarf to equip a different tool.

Note that changes in labors will not always take effect immediately - if a labor is deselected on a dwarf, say Mining, who is performing the job, they will first finish mining the current tile and then stop mining.

Category	Labors
Mining	Mining
Woodworker	Carpentry Crossbow-making Wood cutting
Stoneworking	Masonry Stone detailing
Hunting/Related	Animal training Animal care Hunting Trapping Small animal dissection
Healthcare	Diagnosis Surgery Setting bones Suturing Dressing wounds Feed patients/prisoners Recovering wounded
Farming/Related	Butchery Tanning Farming (fields) Dyeing Soap making Wood burning Potash making Lye making Milling Brewing Plant gathering Plant processing Cheese making Milking Shearing Spinning Cooking Pressing Beekeeping
Fishing/Related	Fishing Fish cleaning Fish dissection
Metalsmithing	Furnace operating Weaponsmithing Armoring Blacksmithing Metalcrafting
Jewelry	Gem cutting Gem setting
Crafts	Leatherworking Woodcrafting Stonecrafting Bone carving Glassmaking Weaving Clothesmaking Strand extraction Pottery Glazing Wax working
Engineering	Siege engineering Siege operating Mechanics Pump operating
Hauling	Stone hauling Wood hauling Item hauling Burial Food hauling Refuse hauling Furniture hauling Animal hauling Push /Haul Vehicle
Other Jobs	Architecture Alchemy Cleaning

Labors and product quality

The experience a dwarf has with a certain labour will determine how well he goes about performing this labour. A higher experience will get the job done faster in all labours (which doesn't apply for labours in which no experience can be gained, like the nursing and hauling labours). However, only certain (typically crafting oriented) labours will produce products that have a quality tag. The table below lists in which labours the dwarf's experience will impact the quality of produced items and in which labours a higher experience will only be beneficial for the speed of production.

Category	Labors	Quality-effects?	Details
Mining	Mining	no	speed only
Woodworker	Carpentry	yes	item, furniture, and designed building quality
	Crossbow-making	yes	weapon quality
	Wood cutting	no	speed only
Stoneworking	Masonry	yes	item, furniture, and designed building quality
	Stone detailing	yes	engraving quality, speed only for smoothing and track carving
Hunting/Related	Animal training	yes	training quality
	Animal care	no	not implemented
	Hunting	no	success rate tends to rise from increasing ambusher and marksdwarf skills
	Trapping	no	success rate?[Verify]
	Small animal dissection	no	speed only
Healthcare (Doctoral)	Diagnosis Surgery Setting bones Suturing Dressing wounds	yes	success chance, accuracy (and speed) of treatment
Healthcare (Nursing)	Feed patients/prisoners Recovering wounded	no	unskilled
Farming/Related	Butchery	no	speed only
	Tanning	no	speed only
	Farming (fields)	yes	crop yield (stack size)
	Dyeing	yes	dye quality
	Soap making	no	speed only
	Wood burning	no	speed only
	Potash making	no	speed only
	Lye making	no	speed only
	Milling	no	speed only
	Brewing	no	speed only
	Plant gathering	yes	success and plant yield (stack size)
	Plant processing	no	speed only
	Cheese making	no	speed only
	Milking	no	speed only
	Shearing	no	speed only
	Spinning	no	speed only
	Cooking	yes	meal and ingredient quality
	Pressing	no	speed only
	Beekeeping	no	speed only[Verify]
Fishing/Related	Fishing	yes	fish stack size
	Fish cleaning	no	speed only
	Fish dissection	no	speed only
Metalsmithing	Furnace operating	no	speed only
	Weaponsmithing	yes	weapon quality
	Armoring	yes	armor quality
	Blacksmithing	yes	item, furniture, designed building quality
	Metalcrafting	yes	craft, item, decoration, designed building quality
Jewelry	Gem cutting	yes	gem craft quality
	Gem setting	yes	decoration quality
Crafts	Leatherworking	yes	clothing, decoration, craft quality
	Woodcrafting	yes	craft quality
	Stonecrafting	yes	craft quality
	Bone carving	yes	craft, decoration quality
	Glassmaking	yes	craft, item, furniture quality
	Weaving	yes	cloth quality
	Clothesmaking	yes	clothing, decoration quality
	Strand extraction	no	speed only
	Pottery	yes	craft, item, furniture quality
	Glazing	no	no experience gain Bug:4577
	Wax working	yes	craft quality
Engineering	Siege engineering	yes	part, ammunition quality
	Siege operating	yes	accuracy
	Mechanics	yes	mechanism, furniture quality
	Pump operating	no	-
Hauling	Stone hauling Wood hauling Item hauling Burial Food hauling Refuse hauling Furniture hauling Animal hauling Push /Haul Vehicle	no	unskilled
Other Jobs	Architecture	yes	building design quality
	Alchemy	no	not implemented
	Cleaning	no	unskilled