Primarily, general office clerks perform clerical tasks. They answer the phone to take messages or redirect calls to appropriate personnel. They sort and deliver incoming mail and prepare outgoing mail. Furthermore, they make travel arrangements for office personnel. Additionally, they complete work schedules, manage calendars and arrange appointments for visitors. Asides from that, they maintain files and records, including performing data entry to remain updated and for easy access. Also, they prepare and process documents, such as bills, relevant forms, and expense reports.
To become a general office clerk, you need a high school diploma or its equivalent. You must have at least two years of relevant work experience. Employers may provide on-the-job training. You must be proficient in Microsoft Office. Likewise, you must possess communication, attention to detail, multitasking, customer service, and organization skills. General office clerks earn about $34,559 in a year. Their salary falls between $24,000 and $49,000.
What is a General Office Clerk?
What Does a General Office Clerk Do
There are certain skills that many general office clerks have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed customer-service skills, detail oriented and organizational skills.
How To Become a General Office Clerk
If you're interested in becoming a general office clerk, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 28.3% of general office clerks have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 2.0% of general office clerks have master's degrees. Even though some general office clerks have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
General Office Clerk Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of data entry clerk you might progress to a role such as accounts payable clerk eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title accounting manager.
Average Salary for a General Office Clerk
What Am I Worth?
Roles and Types of General Office Clerk
The role of a general office clerk includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general general office clerk responsibilities:
- Answer incoming calls from customers. Billing
- Processing incoming mail and ensuring it is properly distributed throughout the office. Matching invoices
- Process daily mail and international shipment documents process
There are several types of general office clerk, including:
Clerk
Role:
For the most part, you only need to graduate from high school before becoming a clerk but some clerk positions may require you to complete a certification course beforehand. The majority of your knowledge of the job will come from the on-the-job training you'll be taken through.
You may not have a lot of stress in your day or you could feel a lot of stress, it really depends on what industry you choose to start your career in. Speaking of, you have a lot of options. On the plus side, you'll never work more than 40 hours a week so you can leave work at the office and enjoy your time off.
- Average Salary: $31,163
- Degree: Bachelor's Degree
Office Clerk
Role:
You might be asked to make travel arrangements or book venues, take minutes at meetings, and maybe even do some basic bookkeeping tasks. Using photocopy machines and printers and being familiar with basic computer software, such as word processors or spreadsheets, will also be required.
If you want to be an efficient office clerk, you need to be diligent, reliable, and hard-working. You must be perceptive and easy to talk to, and experience with office equipment and procedures is always helpful.
- Average Salary: $30,927
- Degree: Bachelor's Degree
File Clerk
Role:
File clerks know all about challenges. There's very little training for this position so you need to overcome the limited direction. Plus, without someone there looking over your shoulder, you need to be able to keep yourself on task and motivated.
The best part of this job is the flexibility. From being available in almost every industry imaginable to having an option for part-time and full-time work, file clerks are really able to make this position what they want. In some industries, the work you'll be doing as a file clerk is helping someone so that's an unexpected added bonus. Now, get out there and change the world.
- Average Salary: $31,562
- Degree: Bachelor's Degree
States With The Most General Office Clerk Jobs
Mouse over a state to see the number of active general office clerk jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where general office clerks earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Number Of General Office Clerk Jobs By State
| Rank | State | Number of Jobs | Average Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | 10,188 | $34,467 |
| 2 | New York | 4,299 | $29,703 |
| 3 | Florida | 3,541 | $26,281 |
| 4 | Texas | 3,536 | $29,294 |
| 5 | Massachusetts | 2,319 | $31,435 |
| 6 | Washington | 2,190 | $36,561 |
| 7 | Pennsylvania | 2,164 | $28,657 |
| 8 | New Jersey | 1,925 | $28,300 |
| 9 | Ohio | 1,854 | $28,037 |
| 10 | Illinois | 1,843 | $28,602 |
| 11 | Michigan | 1,594 | $29,182 |
| 12 | Georgia | 1,470 | $26,127 |
| 13 | Virginia | 1,432 | $27,642 |
| 14 | North Carolina | 1,428 | $28,286 |
| 15 | Indiana | 1,281 | $26,146 |
| 16 | Minnesota | 1,213 | $30,437 |
| 17 | Tennessee | 1,173 | $26,706 |
| 18 | Wisconsin | 1,112 | $27,677 |
| 19 | Missouri | 1,097 | $26,695 |
| 20 | Utah | 1,041 | $29,450 |
| 21 | Connecticut | 1,033 | $28,360 |
| 22 | Colorado | 989 | $34,858 |
| 23 | Oregon | 967 | $34,135 |
| 24 | Maryland | 927 | $32,299 |
| 25 | Arizona | 743 | $30,576 |
| 26 | Kentucky | 685 | $25,963 |
| 27 | South Carolina | 654 | $24,999 |
| 28 | Nebraska | 622 | $27,171 |
| 29 | Kansas | 615 | $23,638 |
| 30 | Iowa | 565 | $28,223 |
| 31 | Idaho | 498 | $26,383 |
| 32 | Alabama | 480 | $23,882 |
| 33 | Oklahoma | 435 | $24,462 |
| 34 | New Hampshire | 426 | $29,933 |
| 35 | Louisiana | 396 | $22,048 |
| 36 | Delaware | 357 | $27,292 |
| 37 | Maine | 338 | $29,332 |
| 38 | Rhode Island | 316 | $32,297 |
| 39 | New Mexico | 299 | $22,056 |
| 40 | Arkansas | 290 | $28,290 |
| 41 | South Dakota | 289 | $23,736 |
| 42 | Mississippi | 251 | $26,153 |
| 43 | North Dakota | 228 | $29,915 |
| 44 | Nevada | 226 | $34,657 |
| 45 | Alaska | 202 | $33,920 |
| 46 | West Virginia | 192 | $24,367 |
| 47 | Vermont | 169 | $30,957 |
| 48 | Montana | 149 | $29,021 |
| 49 | Hawaii | 125 | $33,339 |
| 50 | Wyoming | 96 | $28,848 |
Top Colleges for General Office Clerks
1. Western Carolina University
Cullowhee, NC • Private
2. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
3. Ball State University
Muncie, IN • Private
4. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
5. Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH • Private
6. Cedar Crest College
Allentown, PA • Private
7. Morgan State University
Baltimore, MD • Private
8. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
9. Siena Heights University
Adrian, MI • Private
10. University of Akron
Akron, OH • Private
Top Skills For a General Office Clerk
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 17.0% of general office clerks listed data entry on their resume, but soft skills such as customer-service skills and detail oriented are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable General Office Clerk Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use General Office Clerk templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your General Office Clerk resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
General Office Clerk Demographics
General Office Clerk Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among general office clerks, 77.8% of them are women, while 22.2% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among general office clerks is White, which makes up 53.3% of all general office clerks.
- The most common foreign language among general office clerks is Spanish at 70.1%.
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Best States For a General Office Clerk
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a general office clerk. The best states for people in this position are Washington, Colorado, Nevada, and California. General office clerks make the most in Washington with an average salary of $36,561. Whereas in Colorado and Nevada, they would average $34,858 and $34,657, respectively. While general office clerks would only make an average of $34,467 in California, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Washington
$36,561
Avg. Salary
2. Rhode Island
$32,297
Avg. Salary
3. Oregon
$34,135
Avg. Salary
How Do General Office Clerk Rate Their Jobs?
Top General Office Clerk Employers
Most Common Employers For General Office Clerk
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CNA Insurance | $39,372 | $18.93 | 6 |
| 2 | Allstate | $38,331 | $18.43 | 6 |
| 3 | Farmers Insurance | $38,111 | $18.32 | 8 |
| 4 | Vinson & Elkins | $35,536 | $17.08 | 13 |
| 5 | Xerox | $33,843 | $16.27 | 14 |
| 6 | Tarrant County | $32,552 | $15.65 | 6 |
| 7 | United Food and Commercial Workers International Union | $32,269 | $15.51 | 6 |
| 8 | Bank of America | $32,098 | $15.43 | 24 |
| 9 | JPS Health Network | $32,061 | $15.41 | 7 |
| 10 | YRC Freight | $30,741 | $14.78 | 12 |
General Office Clerk Videos
