---
title: "Procurement Clerk"
description: "Compile information and records to draw up purchase orders for procurement of materials and services."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/procurement-clerk"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Procurement Clerk

**Category:** Office and Administrative Support · **SOC code:** 43-3061 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 43-3061.00

Compile information and records to draw up purchase orders for procurement of materials and services.

Also advertised as: Buyer; Procurement Assistant; Procurement Officer; Procurement Specialist; Purchasing Assistant; Purchasing Associate; Purchasing Clerk; Purchasing Coordinator.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $50,580 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $24.32/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $38,040 to $68,620, with the middle half between $43,420 and $60,080
- **Total US employment:** 55,810
- **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:** -8.1% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 3,700 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 55,810 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $38,040 |
| 25th | $43,420 |
| 50th (median) | $50,580 |
| 75th | $60,080 |
| 90th | $68,620 |
| Mean (average) | $52,370 |

### 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 | $62,880 | $57,215 | 220 |
| MA | $60,110 | $56,838 | 520 |
| NH | $58,830 | $56,478 | 190 |
| MN | $58,100 | $58,912 | 790 |
| NJ | $57,460 | $52,810 | 2,370 |
| CA | $56,160 | $50,723 | 7,080 |
| CO | $55,210 | $53,575 | 830 |
| UT | $54,950 | $55,581 | 540 |
| VA | $54,660 | $54,063 | 930 |
| AK | $54,100 | $52,853 | 230 |
| NY | $54,080 | $50,111 | 2,680 |
| RI | $53,980 | $52,777 | 210 |
| MD | $53,960 | $51,411 | 1,230 |
| HI | $53,890 | $49,013 | 330 |
| PA | $53,800 | $55,139 | 2,360 |

38 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 53 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/procurement-clerk/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/procurement-clerk.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 56,900 in the 2025–2035 base year to 52,300 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 4,600 jobs, or -8.1%. Declining: -8.1% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 3,700 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:** 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 |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 48.2% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 32.7% |
| Some College Courses | 16.8% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 2.3% |

## What the work involves

- Track the status of requisitions, contracts, and orders.
- Perform buying duties when necessary.
- Prepare, maintain, and review purchasing files, reports and price lists.
- Determine if inventory quantities are sufficient for needs, ordering more materials when necessary.
- Prepare purchase orders and send copies to suppliers and to departments originating requests.
- Contact suppliers to schedule or expedite deliveries and to resolve shortages, missed or late deliveries, and other problems.
- Calculate costs of orders, and charge or forward invoices to appropriate accounts.
- Respond to customer and supplier inquiries about order status, changes, or cancellations.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — 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 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.0 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.

- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 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

- English Language — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.8 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 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral 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 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
- Written Expression — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — 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), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 7.00 |
| E — Enterprising | 4.13 |
| R — Realistic | 3.17 |
| I — Investigative | 1.71 |
| S — Social | 1.63 |
| 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) |
| --- | --- |
| ESTJ | 86.9 |
| ISTJ | 83.1 |
| ISFJ | 77.3 |
| ESFJ | 74.5 |
| ENTJ | 59.7 |

Best-fitting types: ESTJ, ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Wholesale and Retail Buyer, Except Farm Products](https://nuecareer.com/careers/wholesale-and-retail-buyer) — median $77,710
- [Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/shipping-receiving-and-inventory-clerk) — median $45,260
- [Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/production-planning-and-expediting-clerk) — median $59,650
- [Stocker and Order Filler](https://nuecareer.com/careers/stocker-and-order-filler) — median $37,330
- [Buyer and Purchasing Agent, Farm Products](https://nuecareer.com/careers/buyer-and-purchasing-agent-farm-products) — median $77,710
- [Order Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/order-clerk) — median $46,170
- [Customer Service Representative](https://nuecareer.com/careers/customer-service-representative) — median $44,770
- [Billing and Posting Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/billing-and-posting-clerk) — median $48,500
- [Counter and Rental Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/counter-and-rental-clerk) — median $41,300
- [Office Clerk, General](https://nuecareer.com/careers/office-clerk-general) — median $45,010

## 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/procurement-clerk