A general-purpose clerical role in offices, government agencies, and specialty operations, you handle typing, data entry, document preparation, and the office-administrative work that supports broader functions — letters, reports, forms, transcription.
The keyboard is the primary tool — typing letters from drafts, entering data into systems from source documents, preparing forms and reports, formatting documents to office standards. Most clerk-typists work in office settings with assigned typing or data-entry workloads, often supporting one or several specific functions or supervisors. Pages produced accurately and turnaround time are the operating measures.
What's changed substantially is the volume and nature of typing work — most office tasks that historically required dedicated typists are now done by the originator on personal computers, narrowing the clerk-typist role to specialized contexts: legal transcription, medical transcription, court reporting support, court-stenography adjacent work, and some government clerical roles where centralized typing pools still exist.
Folks who fit this role are fast and accurate typists, comfortable with formal documents, and patient with the steady cadence of production typing. Court-reporting credentials, medical-transcription credentials (RHDS, CMT), and specialized typing certifications anchor advancement. The trade-off is the contracting employment field of dedicated typing work and the limited career mobility from generalist clerk-typist roles into adjacent specialties.
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Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
Roles with similar work and overlapping career paths
View all Admin & Office roles →A general-purpose clerical role in offices, government agencies, and specialty operations, you handle typing, data entry, document preparation, and the office-administrative work that supports broader functions — letters, reports, forms, transcription.
Median pay for a Clerk Typist is about $45K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $30K to $64K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Reading Comprehension, Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, Active Listening, and Writing.
Most people in this role hold a high school diploma.
Employment in this field is projected to decline about 26% through 2034, with roughly 115,010 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Tape Librarian, Imaging Clerk, and Classification Clerk.
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