Procurement Clerks
Marketing, Sales and ServiceO*NET 43-3061.00United States
Compile information and records to draw up purchase orders for procurement of materials and services.
- Median annual earnings
- $50,588
- Projected change
- −3.8%
- Typical education
- High school diploma or less
- Employment
- 53.65K jobs
50th percentile, United States
2025 to 2035
48.2% of the workforce
Growing to 51.63K by 2035
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The work
What procurement clerks do
Tasks reported for this occupation, ordered by how often they come up in the role.
- Perform buying duties when necessary.
- Track the status of requisitions, contracts, and orders.
- Prepare purchase orders and send copies to suppliers and to departments originating requests.
- Calculate costs of orders, and charge or forward invoices to appropriate accounts.
- Compare prices, specifications, and delivery dates to determine the best bid among potential suppliers.
- Approve and pay bills.
- Determine if inventory quantities are sufficient for needs, ordering more materials when necessary.
- Check shipments when they arrive to ensure that orders have been filled correctly and that goods meet specifications.
- Maintain knowledge of all organizational and governmental rules affecting purchases, and provide information about these rules to organization staff members and to vendors.
- Contact suppliers to schedule or expedite deliveries and to resolve shortages, missed or late deliveries, and other problems.
- Review requisition orders to verify accuracy, terminology, and specifications.
- Prepare, maintain, and review purchasing files, reports and price lists.
- Respond to customer and supplier inquiries about order status, changes, or cancellations.
- Monitor in-house inventory movement and complete inventory transfer forms for bookkeeping purposes.
- Compare suppliers' bills with bids and purchase orders to verify accuracy.
- Locate suppliers, using sources such as catalogs and the internet, and interview them to gather information about products to be ordered.
Pay and outlook
What the job pays and where it is heading
Annual earnings range
Reported earnings by percentile, United States
- 10th percentile
- $38,038
- 25th percentile
- $43,425
- 50th percentile
- $50,588
- 75th percentile
- $60,096
- 90th percentile
- $68,640
The gold marker shows the median. Half earn more than $50,588 and half earn less.
Employment outlook
2025 to 2035 projection
−3.8%projected to decline
202553,651 jobs
2035 projected51,630 jobs
2,021 fewer positions over the decade, before replacement hiring.
Preparation
Education levels
What people currently working in the career hold. These are not entry requirements.
- High school diploma or less
- 48.2%
- Bachelor's degree
- 32.7%
- Some college
- 16.8%
- Associate degree
- 2.3%
Skills
Skills employers ask for
Technical skills appearing most often in job postings for this occupation.
How the work gets done
Core competencies
Broad capabilities associated with strong performance in this occupation.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Active Listening
- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Mathematics
- Using mathematics to solve problems.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Management of Financial Resources
- Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
In the market
Job titles and employers
Recent job postings in United StatesCommon job titles
- 01Purchasing Assistants1,554 postings
- 02Assistant Buyers783 postings
- 03Purchasing Clerks440 postings
- 04Buyers263 postings
- 05Assistant Purchasing Managers196 postings
- 06Purchasing Associates127 postings
- 07Purchasing Interns81 postings
- 08Purchasing Administrator Assistants79 postings
- 09Purchasing Buyers73 postings
- 10Administrative and Purchasing Assistants66 postings
- 11Purchasing Technicians60 postings
- 12Accounting/Purchasing Assistants54 postings
- 13Administrative Assistants/Purchasing Agents54 postings
- 14Purchasers51 postings
- 15Office Assistants46 postings
- 16Buying Assistants45 postings
- 17Buyers Agents38 postings
- 18Retail Assistant Buyers38 postings
- 19Executive Buyers36 postings
- 20Purchasing Analysts35 postings
Top employers
- 01Robert Half86 postings
- 02Aston Carter76 postings
- 03Insight Global76 postings
- 04AppleOne38 postings
- 05Core-Mark International28 postings
- 06Windsor Fashions27 postings
- 07Addison Group26 postings
- 08Aya Healthcare24 postings
- 09D.R. Horton24 postings
- 10Marriott Vacations Worldwide22 postings
- 11Comfama20 postings
- 12Domino's Pizza20 postings
- 13Baltic Food Distributing19 postings
- 14Performance Food Group19 postings
- 15Belcan18 postings
- 16Randstad18 postings
- 17CRH plc17 postings
- 18Edjoin.Org17 postings
- 19Lee Hecht Harrison17 postings
- 20ROCS Grad Staffing17 postings
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