---
title: "Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerk"
description: "Coordinate and expedite the flow of work and materials within or between departments of an establishment according to production schedule. Duties include…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/production-planning-and-expediting-clerk"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerk

**Category:** Office and Administrative Support · **SOC code:** 43-5061 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 43-5061.00

Coordinate and expedite the flow of work and materials within or between departments of an establishment according to production schedule. Duties include reviewing and distributing production, work, and shipment schedules; conferring with department supervisors to determine progress of work and completion dates; and compiling reports on progress of work, inventory levels, costs, and production problems.

Also advertised as: Expeditor; Inventory Control Specialist; Material Requirements Planner (MRP); Materials Coordinator; Materials Planner; Production Assistant; Production Clerk; Production Controller.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $59,650 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $28.68/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $40,080 to $86,000, with the middle half between $47,820 and $75,000
- **Total US employment:** 390,160
- **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:** -1.8% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 34,100 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 17/100 — 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 390,160 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $40,080 |
| 25th | $47,820 |
| 50th (median) | $59,650 |
| 75th | $75,000 |
| 90th | $86,000 |
| Mean (average) | $62,150 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WA | $77,190 | $72,131 | Not published by BLS |
| DC | $72,660 | $66,114 | 430 |
| WY | $69,710 | $75,207 | 110 |
| RI | $65,310 | $63,854 | 960 |
| CO | $63,980 | $62,085 | 7,800 |
| HI | $63,780 | $58,008 | 1,040 |
| CT | $63,240 | $61,037 | 4,090 |
| CA | $63,000 | $56,900 | 56,080 |
| NJ | $62,710 | $57,635 | 9,410 |
| DE | $62,700 | $62,821 | 450 |
| AK | $62,590 | $61,148 | 380 |
| VA | $61,780 | $61,105 | 8,490 |
| MI | $61,670 | $64,095 | 7,560 |
| UT | $61,650 | $62,358 | 4,550 |
| NH | $61,590 | $59,127 | 1,600 |

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

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 388,800 in the 2024–2034 base year to 381,700 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 7,100 jobs, or -1.8%. Declining: -1.8% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 34,100 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:** 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 | 36.8% |
| Some College Courses | 21.2% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 19.5% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 13.2% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 9.4% |

## What the work involves

- Confer with department supervisors or other personnel to assess progress and discuss needed changes.
- Arrange for delivery, assembly, or distribution of supplies or parts to expedite flow of materials and meet production schedules.
- Distribute production schedules or work orders to departments.
- Compile information, such as production rates and progress, materials inventories, materials used, or customer information, so that status reports can be completed.
- Requisition and maintain inventories of materials or supplies necessary to meet production demands.
- Revise production schedules when required due to design changes, labor or material shortages, backlogs, or other interruptions, collaborating with management, marketing, sales, production, or engineering.
- Review documents, such as production schedules, work orders, or staffing tables, to determine personnel or materials requirements or material priorities.
- Confer with establishment personnel, vendors, or customers to coordinate production or shipping activities and to resolve complaints or eliminate delays.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.6 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 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Production and Processing — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.6 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 | 5.92 |
| E — Enterprising | 4.91 |
| R — Realistic | 3.12 |
| S — Social | 2.11 |
| I — Investigative | 1.20 |
| A — Artistic | 1.14 |

### 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 | 88.1 |
| ESFJ | 79.9 |
| ISTJ | 76.1 |
| ISFJ | 73.7 |
| ENTJ | 62.0 |

Best-fitting types: ESTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Project Management Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/project-management-specialist) — median $102,320
- [Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/shipping-receiving-and-inventory-clerk) — median $45,260
- [First-Line Supervisor of Helpers, Laborers, and Material Movers, Hand](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-helpers-laborers-and-material-movers-hand) — median $62,840
- [First-Line Supervisor of Production and Operating Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-production-and-operating-workers) — median $74,450
- [Weigher, Measurer, Checker, and Sampler, Recordkeeping](https://nuecareer.com/careers/weigher-measurer-checker-and-sampler-recordkeeping) — median $46,380
- [First-Line Supervisor of Office and Administrative Support Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-office-and-administrative-support-workers) — median $69,500
- [First-Line Supervisor of Mechanics, Installers, and Repairers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-mechanics-installers-and-repairers) — median $79,860
- [Procurement Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/procurement-clerk) — median $50,580
- [Industrial Engineering Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/industrial-engineering-technologist-and-technician) — median $66,120
- [Stocker and Order Filler](https://nuecareer.com/careers/stocker-and-order-filler) — median $37,330

## 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/production-planning-and-expediting-clerk