---
title: "Correspondence Clerk"
description: "Compose letters or electronic correspondence in reply to requests for merchandise, damage claims, credit and other information, delinquent accounts…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/correspondence-clerk"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Correspondence Clerk

**Category:** Office and Administrative Support · **SOC code:** 43-4021 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 43-4021.00

Compose letters or electronic correspondence in reply to requests for merchandise, damage claims, credit and other information, delinquent accounts, incorrect billings, or unsatisfactory services. Duties may include gathering data to formulate reply and preparing correspondence.

Also advertised as: Chargeback Specialist; Claims Correspondence Clerk; Correspondence Clerk; Correspondence Coordinator; Correspondence Representative (Correspondence Rep); Correspondent; Dispute Resolution Analyst; Dispute Specialist.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $46,800 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $22.50/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $33,300 to $64,510, with the middle half between $38,610 and $56,090
- **Total US employment:** 4,290
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -5.6% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 500 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 13/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 4,290 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $33,300 |
| 25th | $38,610 |
| 50th (median) | $46,800 |
| 75th | $56,090 |
| 90th | $64,510 |
| Mean (average) | $48,090 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CT | $61,310 | $59,174 | 70 |
| OR | $61,160 | $59,171 | 110 |
| CA | $53,640 | $48,447 | 240 |
| ID | $51,010 | $53,417 | 40 |
| NE | $49,800 | $55,270 | 60 |
| NH | $49,730 | $47,742 | 120 |
| IN | $49,710 | $53,263 | 70 |
| OH | $49,700 | $53,571 | 40 |
| NY | $49,360 | $45,737 | 540 |
| ME | $49,180 | $50,675 | 40 |
| TX | $48,860 | $50,342 | 830 |
| NJ | $48,510 | $44,584 | 40 |
| VA | $48,310 | $47,782 | Not published by BLS |
| NV | $47,820 | $47,830 | 130 |
| UT | $47,450 | $47,995 | 140 |

11 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 26 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/correspondence-clerk/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/correspondence-clerk.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 4,800 in the 2025–2035 base year to 4,500 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 300 jobs, or -5.6%. Declining: -5.6% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 500 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Short-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 42.9% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 28.1% |
| Some College Courses | 17.4% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 11.6% |

## What the work involves

- Maintain files and control records to show correspondence activities.
- Route correspondence to other departments for reply.
- Read incoming correspondence to ascertain nature of writers' concerns and to determine disposition of correspondence.
- Gather records pertinent to specific problems, review them for completeness and accuracy, and attach records to correspondence as necessary.
- Prepare documents and correspondence, such as damage claims, credit and billing inquiries, invoices, and service complaints.
- Compile data from records to prepare periodic reports.
- Compose letters in reply to correspondence concerning such items as requests for merchandise, damage claims, credit information requests, delinquent accounts, incorrect billing, or unsatisfactory service.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Writing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Administrative — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Economics and Accounting — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Written Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Conventional (C), Enterprising (E).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 6.86 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.43 |
| S — Social | 2.70 |
| I — Investigative | 2.52 |
| A — Artistic | 1.57 |
| R — Realistic | 1.32 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESTJ | 78.1 |
| ISFJ | 75.7 |
| ESFJ | 74.6 |
| ISTJ | 72.9 |
| ENTJ | 59.0 |

Best-fitting types: ESTJ, ISFJ, ESFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Office Clerk, General](https://nuecareer.com/careers/office-clerk-general) — median $45,010
- [File Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/file-clerk) — median $43,600
- [Secretary and Administrative Assistant, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive](https://nuecareer.com/careers/secretary-and-administrative-assistant) — median $47,540
- [Legal Secretary and Administrative Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/legal-secretary-and-administrative-assistant) — median $55,570
- [Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/bookkeeping-accounting-and-auditing-clerk) — median $50,670
- [Executive Secretary and Executive Administrative Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/executive-secretary-and-executive-administrative-assistant) — median $76,590
- [Billing and Posting Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/billing-and-posting-clerk) — median $48,500
- [Customer Service Representative](https://nuecareer.com/careers/customer-service-representative) — median $44,770
- [Credit Authorizer, Checker, and Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/credit-authorizer-checker-and-clerk) — median $50,080
- [Insurance Claim and Policy Processing Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/insurance-claim-and-policy-processing-clerk) — median $49,230

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/correspondence-clerk