---
title: "Data Entry Keyer"
description: "Operate data entry device, such as keyboard or photo composing perforator. Duties may include verifying data and preparing materials for printing."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/data-entry-keyer"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Data Entry Keyer

**Category:** Office and Administrative Support · **SOC code:** 43-9021 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 43-9021.00

Operate data entry device, such as keyboard or photo composing perforator. Duties may include verifying data and preparing materials for printing.

Also advertised as: Data Capture Specialist; Data Entry Clerk; Data Entry Machine Operator; Data Entry Operator; Data Entry Specialist; Data Transcriber; Records Clerk; Underwriting Support Specialist.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $41,340 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $19.88/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $31,200 to $58,790, with the middle half between $35,760 and $48,410
- **Total US employment:** 127,080
- **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:** -25.5% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 7,700 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 10/100 — 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 127,080 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $31,200 |
| 25th | $35,760 |
| 50th (median) | $41,340 |
| 75th | $48,410 |
| 90th | $58,790 |
| Mean (average) | $43,310 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DC | $55,170 | $50,200 | 200 |
| NM | $49,810 | $54,017 | 300 |
| ND | $48,300 | $54,295 | 110 |
| ME | $48,190 | $49,655 | 140 |
| HI | $47,630 | $43,319 | 210 |
| MA | $47,560 | $44,971 | 1,590 |
| WA | $47,480 | $44,368 | 1,360 |
| UT | $47,180 | $47,722 | 2,140 |
| CA | $47,010 | $42,458 | 14,520 |
| WY | $45,870 | $49,487 | 140 |
| RI | $44,980 | $43,977 | 270 |
| NY | $44,860 | $41,567 | 9,470 |
| MN | $44,280 | $44,899 | 1,360 |
| CO | $43,910 | $42,610 | 1,190 |
| IA | $43,640 | $49,725 | 1,180 |

37 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 52 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/data-entry-keyer/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/data-entry-keyer.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 131,800 in the 2025–2035 base year to 98,200 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 33,600 jobs, or -25.5%. Declining: -25.5% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 7,700 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) | 58.7% |
| Some College Courses | 30.2% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 11.1% |

## What the work involves

- Locate and correct data entry errors, or report them to supervisors.
- Store completed documents in appropriate locations.
- Compare data with source documents, or re-enter data in verification format to detect errors.
- Select materials needed to complete work assignments.
- Compile, sort, and verify the accuracy of data before it is entered.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.1 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.

- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Personnel Resources — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- English Language — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Written Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Finger Dexterity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Perceptual Speed — importance 3.5 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), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 7.00 |
| R — Realistic | 3.05 |
| I — Investigative | 2.31 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.67 |
| S — Social | 1.19 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### 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) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 88.7 |
| ISFJ | 81.2 |
| ESTJ | 79.5 |
| ESFJ | 64.6 |
| INTJ | 63.6 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [File Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/file-clerk) — median $43,600
- [Word Processor and Typist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/word-processor-and-typist) — median $49,280
- [Office Machine Operator, Except Computer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/office-machine-operator) — median $40,960
- [Mail Clerk and Mail Machine Operator, Except Postal Service](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mail-clerk-and-mail-machine-operator) — median $39,280
- [Office Clerk, General](https://nuecareer.com/careers/office-clerk-general) — median $45,010
- [Postal Service Mail Sorter, Processor, and Processing Machine Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/postal-service-mail-sorter-processor-and-processing-machine-operator) — median $58,470
- [Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/production-planning-and-expediting-clerk) — median $59,650
- [Billing and Posting Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/billing-and-posting-clerk) — median $48,500
- [Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/shipping-receiving-and-inventory-clerk) — median $45,260
- [Payroll and Timekeeping Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/payroll-and-timekeeping-clerk) — median $58,260

## 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/
- **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/data-entry-keyer