---
title: "Loan Officer"
description: "Evaluate, authorize, or recommend approval of commercial, real estate, or credit loans. Advise borrowers on financial status and payment methods.…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/loan-officer"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Loan Officer

**Category:** Business and Financial Operations · **SOC code:** 13-2072 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 13-2072.00

Evaluate, authorize, or recommend approval of commercial, real estate, or credit loans. Advise borrowers on financial status and payment methods. Includes mortgage loan officers and agents, collection analysts, loan servicing officers, loan underwriters, and payday loan officers.

Also advertised as: Commercial Banker; Commercial Loan Officer; Corporate Banking Officer; Financial Aid Advisor; Financial Aid Counselor; Financial Aid Officer; Financial Counselor; Loan Counselor.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $76,690 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $36.87/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $39,430 to $153,180, with the middle half between $52,730 and $104,080
- **Total US employment:** 274,330
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +1.7% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 20,300 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 20/100 — 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 274,330 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $39,430 |
| 25th | $52,730 |
| 50th (median) | $76,690 |
| 75th | $104,080 |
| 90th | $153,180 |
| Mean (average) | $87,790 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MA | $101,600 | $96,069 | 4,470 |
| CT | $95,730 | $92,395 | 2,220 |
| NY | $95,710 | $88,685 | 10,840 |
| MN | $95,170 | $96,501 | 6,430 |
| CO | $94,520 | $91,721 | 3,230 |
| OR | $94,440 | $91,369 | 4,220 |
| NJ | $92,920 | $85,400 | 6,200 |
| DC | $92,890 | $84,522 | 370 |
| VT | $88,710 | $90,559 | 350 |
| KS | $86,970 | $96,560 | 3,540 |
| ND | $84,650 | $95,156 | 1,370 |
| IA | $83,670 | $95,337 | 2,840 |
| DE | $83,130 | $83,290 | 1,420 |
| ME | $81,900 | $84,389 | 1,060 |
| CA | $81,770 | $73,853 | 25,790 |

39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/loan-officer/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/loan-officer.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 301,400 in the 2024–2034 base year to 306,500 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 5,000 jobs, or +1.7%. Slower than average: 1.7% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 20,300 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** Less than 5 years.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-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 |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 68.7% |
| Some College Courses | 12.8% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 11.2% |
| High School Diploma | 6.1% |
| Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 1.1% |

## What the work involves

- Explain to customers the different types of loans and credit options that are available, as well as the terms of those services.
- Obtain and compile copies of loan applicants' credit histories, corporate financial statements, and other financial information.
- Meet with applicants to obtain information for loan applications and to answer questions about the process.
- Analyze applicants' financial status, credit, and property evaluations to determine feasibility of granting loans.
- Review and update credit and loan files.
- Handle customer complaints and take appropriate action to resolve them.
- Work with clients to identify their financial goals and to find ways of reaching those goals.
- Stay abreast of new types of loans and other financial services and products to better meet customers' needs.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 2.9 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 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Economics and Accounting — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sales and Marketing — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.8 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), Social (S).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 6.08 |
| E — Enterprising | 4.98 |
| S — Social | 3.65 |
| I — Investigative | 2.32 |
| R — Realistic | 1.43 |
| 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) |
| --- | --- |
| ESFJ | 83.1 |
| ESTJ | 81.9 |
| ISFJ | 71.1 |
| ISTJ | 64.4 |
| ENFJ | 63.4 |

Best-fitting types: ESFJ, ESTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Loan Interviewer and Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/loan-interviewer-and-clerk) — median $50,020
- [Credit Counselor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/credit-counselor) — median $52,230
- [Credit Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/credit-analyst) — median $83,510
- [Credit Authorizer, Checker, and Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/credit-authorizer-checker-and-clerk) — median $50,080
- [Financial Advisor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/financial-advisor) — median $105,070
- [Security, Commodity, and Financial Services Sales Agent](https://nuecareer.com/careers/security-commodity-and-financial-services-sales-agent) — median $78,660
- [Financial Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/financial-manager) — median $166,570
- [Financial and Investment Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/financial-and-investment-analyst) — median $102,740
- [New Accounts Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/new-accounts-clerk) — median $47,670
- [Bill and Account Collector](https://nuecareer.com/careers/bill-and-account-collector) — median $47,030

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 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, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 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 30.3 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/loan-officer