Telephone Operators
Arts, Audio/Video Technology and CommunicationsO*NET 43-2021.00United States
Provide information by accessing alphabetical, geographical, or other directories. Assist customers with special billing requests, such as charges to a third party and credits or refunds for incorrectly dialed numbers or bad connections.
- Median annual earnings
- $41,634
- Projected change
- −19.6%
- Typical education
- High school diploma or less
- Employment
- 4.23K jobs
50th percentile, United States
2025 to 2035
97.8% of the workforce
Growing to 3.4K 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 telephone operators do
Tasks reported for this occupation, ordered by how often they come up in the role.
- Observe signal lights on switchboards, and dial or press buttons to make connections.
- Operate telephone switchboards and systems to advance and complete connections, including those for local, long distance, pay telephone, mobile, person-to-person, and emergency calls.
- Listen to customer requests, referring to alphabetical or geographical directories to answer questions and provide telephone information.
- Suggest and check alternate spellings, locations, or listing formats to customers lacking details or complete information.
- Update directory information.
- Perform clerical duties such as typing, proofreading, and sorting mail.
- Offer special assistance to persons such as those who are unable to dial or who are in emergency situations.
Pay and outlook
What the job pays and where it is heading
Annual earnings range
Reported earnings by percentile, United States
- 10th percentile
- $31,268
- 25th percentile
- $36,760
- 50th percentile
- $41,634
- 75th percentile
- $51,343
- 90th percentile
- $62,643
The gold marker shows the median. Half earn more than $41,634 and half earn less.
Employment outlook
2025 to 2035 projection
−19.6%projected to decline
20254,228 jobs
2035 projected3,399 jobs
829 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
- 97.8%
- Associate degree
- 1.9%
- Some college
- 0.2%
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.
- 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.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- 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.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Systems Analysis
- Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- 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.
In the market
Job titles and employers
Recent job postings in United StatesCommon job titles
- 01Telephone Operators874 postings
- 02Telecommunications Operators67 postings
- 03Receptionists/Telephone Operators19 postings
- 04Guest Experience Experts6 postings
- 05Emergency Dispatchers5 postings
- 06Telecommunicators5 postings
- 07Bilingual Spanish Customer Service Representatives4 postings
- 08Communication Infrastructure Maintainers2 postings
- 09Radio Telephone Operators2 postings
- 10Telephone Surveyors2 postings
- 11Telephone Customer Service Representatives1 postings
- 12Telephone Triage Registered Nurses1 postings
Top employers
- 01University of Pittsburgh Medical Center39 postings
- 02US Oncology Network35 postings
- 03Hyatt29 postings
- 04Uhs27 postings
- 05Marriott International25 postings
- 06Adventist Health22 postings
- 07Davidson Hospitality19 postings
- 08Geisinger Health System15 postings
- 09LCMC Health13 postings
- 10United States Department of Veterans Affairs13 postings
- 11Universal Health Services13 postings
- 12Xanterra11 postings
- 13TEKsystems9 postings
- 14Tufts9 postings
- 15Tufts Medicine9 postings
- 16Aimbridge Hospitality8 postings
- 17Mount Sinai Health System8 postings
- 18Access Healthcare Physicians, Llc.7 postings
- 19Cleveland Clinic7 postings
- 20Hilton7 postings
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