Financial Clerk

Financial clerks do administrative work for many types of organizations. They keep records, help customers, and carry out transactions that involve money.

Financial clerks typically do the following:

• Keep and update financial records
• Calculate bills and charges
• Offer customer assistance
• Carry out financial transactions

Financial clerks held about 1.3 million jobs in 2021. Employment in the detailed occupations that make up financial clerks was distributed as follows:

The largest employers of financial clerks were as follows:

Financial clerks work in a variety of industries, usually in offices.

Work Schedules

Most financial clerks work full time.

A high school diploma or equivalent is typically required for most financial clerk jobs. These workers typically learn their duties through on-the-job training.

Education

Financial clerks typically need a high school diploma or equivalent to enter the occupation. Employers of brokerage clerks may prefer candidates who have taken some college courses in business or economics and, in some cases, have a 2- or 4-year college degree.

Training

Most financial clerks learn how to do their job duties through on-the-job training. Some formal technical training also may be necessary; for example, gambling cage workers may need training in specific gambling regulations and procedures.

Advancement

Financial clerks may advance to related occupations in finance. For example, a loan interviewer or clerk may become a loan officer, and a brokerage clerk may become a securities, commodities, and financial services sales agent, after obtaining the required education and license.

Financial clerks typically have an interest in the Persuading and Organizing interest areas, according to the Holland Code framework. The Persuading interest area indicates a focus on influencing, motivating, and selling to other people. The Organizing interest area indicates a focus on working with information and processes to keep things arranged in orderly systems.

If you are not sure whether you have a Persuading or Organizing interest which might fit with a career as a financial clerk, you can take a career test to measure your interests.

Financial clerks should also possess the following specific qualities:

Communication skills. Financial clerks should have good communication skills so that they can explain policies and procedures to colleagues and customers.

Math skills. The job duties of financial clerks, including calculating charges and checking credit scores, require basic math skills.

Organizational skills. Strong organizational skills are important for financial clerks because they must be able to find files quickly and efficiently.

The median annual wage for financial clerks was $44,760 in May 2021. The median wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $29,830, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $61,150.

Median annual wages for financial clerks in May 2021 were as follows:

In May 2021, the median annual wages for financial clerks in the top industries in which they worked were as follows:

Most financial clerks work full time.

Overall employment of financial clerks is projected to decline 3 percent from 2021 to 2031.

Despite declining employment, about 130,500 openings for financial clerks are projected each year, on average, over the decade. All of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to other occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire. 

Employment

Projected employment of financial clerks varies by occupation (see table). The availability of online tools, which allow financial customers to perform many tasks themselves, is expected to reduce demand for occupations such as new accounts clerks; procurement clerks; and credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks. Similarly, productivity-enhancing technology is expected to limit demand for other clerks, such as payroll and timekeeping clerks, loan interviewers and clerks, brokerage clerks, and insurance claims and policy processing clerks.

Employment of gambling cage workers will be impacted by the adoption of technology in payout processing and online gambling, which limits the need for cage workers.  

Employment of billing and posting clerks is expected to rise in fast-growing healthcare industries; however, automated invoice processing software will increase the productivity of these workers and reduce overall employment growth.

For more information about financial clerks, visit

American Bankers Association

Mortgage Bankers Association

Where does this information come from?

The career information above is taken from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook. This excellent resource for occupational data is published by the U.S. Department of Labor every two years. Truity periodically updates our site with information from the BLS database.

I would like to cite this page for a report. Who is the author?

There is no published author for this page. Please use citation guidelines for webpages without an author available.

I think I have found an error or inaccurate information on this page. Who should I contact?

This information is taken directly from the Occupational Outlook Handbook published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Truity does not editorialize the information, including changing information that our readers believe is inaccurate, because we consider the BLS to be the authority on occupational information. However, if you would like to correct a typo or other technical error, you can reach us at help@truity.com.

I am not sure if this career is right for me. How can I decide?

There are many excellent tools available that will allow you to measure your interests, profile your personality, and match these traits with appropriate careers. On this site, you can take the Career Personality Profiler assessment, the Holland Code assessment, or the Photo Career Quiz.