---
title: "Proofreader and Copy Marker"
description: "Read transcript or proof type setup to detect and mark for correction any grammatical, typographical, or compositional errors. Excludes workers whose…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/proofreader-and-copy-marker"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Proofreader and Copy Marker

**Category:** Office and Administrative Support · **SOC code:** 43-9081 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 43-9081.00

Read transcript or proof type setup to detect and mark for correction any grammatical, typographical, or compositional errors. Excludes workers whose primary duty is editing copy. Includes proofreaders of braille.

Also advertised as: Copy Editor; Copyholder; Editorial Assistant; News Copy Editor; Proofer; Proofreader; Typesetter.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $51,120 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $24.58/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $34,510 to $79,290, with the middle half between $41,170 and $62,390
- **Total US employment:** 4,580
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -0.9% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 1,100 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 0/100 — 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 4,580 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $34,510 |
| 25th | $41,170 |
| 50th (median) | $51,120 |
| 75th | $62,390 |
| 90th | $79,290 |
| Mean (average) | $54,800 |

### 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 | $68,120 | $61,983 | 50 |
| NY | $59,740 | $55,355 | 1,030 |
| CA | $57,490 | $51,924 | 300 |
| MA | $57,160 | $54,048 | 190 |
| NJ | $56,700 | $52,112 | 160 |
| OH | $55,560 | $59,887 | 100 |
| MD | $53,920 | $51,372 | Not published by BLS |
| WA | $53,890 | $50,358 | 60 |
| MO | $52,920 | $58,271 | 110 |
| KS | $51,160 | $56,802 | 90 |
| IL | $50,060 | $50,081 | 300 |
| MN | $49,450 | $50,141 | Not published by BLS |
| GA | $49,200 | $51,094 | Not published by BLS |
| VA | $48,090 | $47,565 | 90 |
| PA | $47,510 | $48,692 | 230 |

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

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 8,500 in the 2025–2035 base year to 8,500 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 100 jobs, or -0.9%. Declining: -0.9% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 1,100 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:** 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:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### 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 | 47.3% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 23.2% |
| Some College Courses | 12.0% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 11.2% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 6.2% |

## What the work involves

- Consult reference books or secure aid of readers to check references with rules of grammar and composition.
- Correct or record omissions, errors, or inconsistencies found.
- Compare information or figures on one record against same data on other records, or with original copy, to detect errors.
- Read corrected copies or proofs to ensure that all corrections have been made.
- Consult with authors and editors regarding manuscript changes and suggestions.
- Mark copy to indicate and correct errors in type, arrangement, grammar, punctuation, or spelling, using standard printers' marks.
- Route proofs with marked corrections to authors, editors, typists, or typesetters for correction or reprinting.
- Archive documents, conduct research, and read copy, using the internet and various computer programs.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.0 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.

- Time Management — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 2.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 2.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- English Language — importance 5.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Communications and Media — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 2.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Written Comprehension — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.3 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), Artistic (A).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 6.16 |
| A — Artistic | 3.56 |
| I — Investigative | 2.50 |
| S — Social | 2.20 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.53 |
| R — Realistic | 1.44 |

### 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) |
| --- | --- |
| ISFJ | 71.0 |
| ISTJ | 67.0 |
| INFJ | 60.5 |
| INTJ | 60.0 |
| ESTJ | 59.5 |

Best-fitting types: ISFJ, ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Editor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/editor) — median $77,920
- [Desktop Publisher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/desktop-publisher) — median $55,290
- [Technical Writer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/technical-writer) — median $90,390
- [Word Processor and Typist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/word-processor-and-typist) — median $49,280
- [File Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/file-clerk) — median $43,600
- [Writer and Author](https://nuecareer.com/careers/writer-and-author) — median $76,910
- [Data Entry Keyer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/data-entry-keyer) — median $41,340
- [Document Management Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/document-management-specialist) — median $116,580
- [Film and Video Editor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/film-and-video-editor) — median $75,420
- [Library Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/library-technician) — median $44,580

## 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/proofreader-and-copy-marker