---
title: "Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerk"
description: "Verify and maintain records on incoming and outgoing shipments involving inventory. Duties include verifying and recording incoming merchandise or…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/shipping-receiving-and-inventory-clerk"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerk

**Category:** Office and Administrative Support · **SOC code:** 43-5071 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 43-5071.00

Verify and maintain records on incoming and outgoing shipments involving inventory. Duties include verifying and recording incoming merchandise or material and arranging for the transportation of products. May prepare items for shipment.

Also advertised as: Materials Control Associate; Order Fulfillment Specialist; Receiver; Receiving Associate; Receiving Clerk; Receiving Coordinator; Shipper; Shipping Clerk.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $45,260 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $21.76/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $34,650 to $62,190, with the middle half between $38,200 and $51,570
- **Total US employment:** 816,870
- **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:** -7.7% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 69,300 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 44/100 — 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 816,870 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $34,650 |
| 25th | $38,200 |
| 50th (median) | $45,260 |
| 75th | $51,570 |
| 90th | $62,190 |
| Mean (average) | $46,810 |

### 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 | $51,590 | $48,209 | 19,500 |
| DC | $49,660 | $45,186 | 680 |
| HI | $49,660 | $45,166 | 1,390 |
| MA | $49,240 | $46,560 | 14,370 |
| VT | $49,080 | $50,103 | 780 |
| NH | $47,960 | $46,042 | 4,090 |
| AK | $47,900 | $46,796 | 890 |
| MN | $47,890 | $48,560 | 13,210 |
| IA | $47,590 | $54,226 | 7,170 |
| OR | $47,540 | $45,994 | 11,210 |
| WI | $47,490 | $50,470 | 20,980 |
| IN | $47,320 | $50,702 | 27,600 |
| MD | $47,280 | $45,046 | 13,980 |
| ME | $47,160 | $48,594 | 2,470 |
| CO | $47,130 | $45,734 | 15,610 |

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

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 862,200 in the 2024–2034 base year to 795,800 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 66,300 jobs, or -7.7%. Declining: -7.7% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 69,300 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:** 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 | 74.9% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 11.9% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 10.8% |
| Some College Courses | 1.9% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 0.5% |

## What the work involves

- Examine shipment contents and compare with records, such as manifests, invoices, or orders, to verify accuracy.
- Confer or correspond with establishment representatives to rectify problems, such as damages, shortages, or nonconformance to specifications.
- Record shipment data, such as weight, charges, space availability, damages, or discrepancies, for reporting, accounting, or recordkeeping purposes.
- Requisition and store shipping materials and supplies to maintain inventory of stock.
- Prepare documents, such as work orders, bills of lading, or shipping orders, to route materials.
- Pack, seal, label, or affix postage to prepare materials for shipping, using hand tools, power tools, or postage meter.
- Contact carrier representatives to make arrangements or to issue instructions for shipping and delivery of materials.
- Determine shipping methods, routes, or rates for materials to be shipped.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Speaking — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.1 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 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.3 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
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — 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
- Persuasion — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Administrative — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Near Vision — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.1 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), Enterprising (E).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 7.00 |
| R — Realistic | 3.98 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.11 |
| S — Social | 1.37 |
| I — Investigative | 1.24 |
| 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 | 86.7 |
| ESTJ | 85.4 |
| ISFJ | 80.6 |
| ESFJ | 71.8 |
| ESTP | 55.9 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ, ESTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Postal Service Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/postal-service-clerk) — median $62,130
- [Stocker and Order Filler](https://nuecareer.com/careers/stocker-and-order-filler) — median $37,330
- [Cargo and Freight Agent](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cargo-and-freight-agent) — median $52,260
- [Weigher, Measurer, Checker, and Sampler, Recordkeeping](https://nuecareer.com/careers/weigher-measurer-checker-and-sampler-recordkeeping) — median $46,380
- [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
- [Mail Clerk and Mail Machine Operator, Except Postal Service](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mail-clerk-and-mail-machine-operator) — median $39,280
- [Freight Forwarder](https://nuecareer.com/careers/freight-forwarder) — median $52,260
- [Laborer and Freight, Stock, and Material Mover, Hand](https://nuecareer.com/careers/laborer-and-freight-stock-and-material-mover-hand) — median $40,240
- [Order Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/order-clerk) — median $46,170

## 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/shipping-receiving-and-inventory-clerk