Purchasing Agents, Except Wholesale, Retail, and Farm Products
Marketing, Sales and ServiceO*NET 13-1023.00United States
Purchase machinery, equipment, tools, parts, supplies, or services necessary for the operation of an establishment. Purchase raw or semifinished materials for manufacturing.
- Median annual earnings
- $76,563
- Projected change
- +9%
- Typical education
- Bachelor's degree
- Employment
- 514.87K jobs
50th percentile, United States
2025 to 2035
75% of the workforce
Growing to 561.41K by 2035
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ASU learning related to this career
These courses and certificates are connected through catalog career relationships and Lightcast skill tags.
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The work
What purchasing agents, except wholesale, retail, and farm products do
Tasks reported for this occupation, ordered by how often they come up in the role.
- Monitor and follow applicable laws and regulations.
- Purchase the highest quality merchandise at the lowest possible price and in correct amounts.
- Prepare purchase orders, solicit bid proposals, and review requisitions for goods and services.
- Formulate policies and procedures for bid proposals and procurement of goods and services.
- Write and review product specifications, maintaining a working technical knowledge of the goods or services to be purchased.
- Analyze price proposals, financial reports, and other data and information to determine reasonable prices.
- Research and evaluate suppliers, based on price, quality, selection, service, support, availability, reliability, production and distribution capabilities, and the supplier's reputation and history.
- Hire, train, or supervise purchasing clerks, buyers, and expediters.
- Negotiate, renegotiate, and administer contracts with suppliers, vendors, and other representatives.
- Evaluate and monitor contract performance to ensure compliance with contractual obligations and to determine need for changes.
- Study sales records and inventory levels of current stock to develop strategic purchasing programs that facilitate employee access to supplies.
- Confer with staff, users, and vendors to discuss defective or unacceptable goods or services and determine corrective action.
- Maintain and review computerized or manual records of purchased items, costs, deliveries, product performance, and inventories.
- Monitor changes affecting supply and demand, tracking market conditions, price trends, or futures markets.
- Monitor shipments to ensure that goods come in on time, and resolve problems related to undelivered goods.
- Review catalogs, industry periodicals, directories, trade journals, and Internet sites and consult with other department personnel to locate necessary goods and services.
- Attend meetings, trade shows, conferences, conventions, and seminars to network with people in other purchasing departments.
Pay and outlook
What the job pays and where it is heading
Annual earnings range
Reported earnings by percentile, United States
- 10th percentile
- $47,111
- 25th percentile
- $59,500
- 50th percentile
- $76,563
- 75th percentile
- $100,470
- 90th percentile
- $132,336
The gold marker shows the median. Half earn more than $76,563 and half earn less.
Employment outlook
2025 to 2035 projection
+9%faster than average
2025514,873 jobs
2035 projected561,410 jobs
46,537 more positions over the decade, before replacement hiring.
Preparation
Education levels
What people currently working in the career hold. These are not entry requirements.
- Bachelor's degree
- 75%
- High school diploma or less
- 15%
- Associate degree
- 10%
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.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- 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.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Management of Financial Resources
- Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Management of Material Resources
- Obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Systems Evaluation
- Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Mathematics
- Using mathematics to solve problems.
In the market
Job titles and employers
Recent job postings in United StatesCommon job titles
- 01Procurement Specialists5,904 postings
- 02Contracts Managers5,259 postings
- 03Contract Administrators4,282 postings
- 04Contract Specialists4,017 postings
- 05Proposal Managers2,621 postings
- 06Purchasing Specialists2,217 postings
- 07Purchasing Coordinators2,100 postings
- 08Procurement Analysts2,079 postings
- 09Buyers1,950 postings
- 10Contract Analysts1,336 postings
- 11Procurement Coordinators1,171 postings
- 12Lead Subcontracts Administrators1,133 postings
- 13Proposal Specialists1,116 postings
- 14Subcontract Administrators1,093 postings
- 15Contract Coordinators735 postings
- 16Proposal Coordinators612 postings
- 17Subcontract Managers606 postings
- 18Procurement Agents508 postings
- 19Program Managers498 postings
- 20Government Contracts Managers489 postings
Top employers
- 01Robert Half1,671 postings
- 02Lockheed Martin1,048 postings
- 03Amentum1,041 postings
- 04Northrop Grumman992 postings
- 05RTX907 postings
- 06KPMG825 postings
- 07Lumen Technologies725 postings
- 08TriWest Healthcare Alliance594 postings
- 09GovCIO581 postings
- 10Fujifilm523 postings
- 11Aston Carter522 postings
- 12GE Aerospace487 postings
- 13Serco472 postings
- 14Aya Healthcare448 postings
- 15Cardinal Health436 postings
- 16CDM Smith432 postings
- 17CVS Health429 postings
- 18Jacobs Solutions425 postings
- 19Insight Global410 postings
- 20BAE Systems407 postings
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