Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between clerical specialists and office specialists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a clerical specialist and an office specialist. Additionally, an office specialist has an average salary of $33,477, which is higher than the $30,736 average annual salary of a clerical specialist.
The top three skills for a clerical specialist include patients, data entry and customer service. The most important skills for an office specialist are customer service, data entry, and patients.
| Clerical Specialist | Office Specialist | |
| Yearly salary | $30,736 | $33,477 |
| Hourly rate | $14.78 | $16.09 |
| Growth rate | -5% | -5% |
| Number of jobs | 60,757 | 98,760 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 35% | Bachelor's Degree, 44% |
| Average age | 47 | 47 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
Clerical specialists are office assistants or executive secretaries offering administrative support. The specialists schedule conference meetings or calls, prepare statistical reports and correspondence, and maintain sensitive data. They manage both incoming and outgoing mails and the distribution of letters and packages to administrative offices and staff. Their job includes the redesign and reorganization of the existing filing systems of client and internal documents. They comply with corporate confidentiality, regulations, and guidelines. Skills in data entry, customer service, and medical records are necessary for this job.
An office specialist is responsible for performing administrative and clerical duties to support the organization's daily operations. Office specialists must be highly organizational, as well as having excellent time-management skills to handle work units. They have duties including data entry procedures, greeting visitors, responding to customers' inquiries through phone calls and e-mails, and filing and sorting documents. Office specialists are responsible for creating meeting reports, scheduling appointments, evaluating financial statements, coordinating with other staff for event planning, and assisting the senior management with complex functions.
Clerical specialists and office specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Clerical Specialist | Office Specialist | |
| Average salary | $30,736 | $33,477 |
| Salary range | Between $24,000 And $38,000 | Between $25,000 And $43,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Jose, CA | Washington, DC |
| Highest paying state | California | Massachusetts |
| Best paying company | Wayne County, Michigan | Brookhaven National Laboratory |
| Best paying industry | Government | Finance |
There are a few differences between a clerical specialist and an office specialist in terms of educational background:
| Clerical Specialist | Office Specialist | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 35% | Bachelor's Degree, 44% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | Western Carolina University |
Here are the differences between clerical specialists' and office specialists' demographics:
| Clerical Specialist | Office Specialist | |
| Average age | 47 | 47 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 13.7% Female, 86.3% | Male, 18.3% Female, 81.7% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.6% Unknown, 4.5% Hispanic or Latino, 16.9% Asian, 7.5% White, 58.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.0% | Black or African American, 8.1% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 19.8% Asian, 8.4% White, 57.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 6% |