Office clerks are one of the least happy careers in the United States.
At CareerExplorer, we conduct an ongoing survey with millions of people and ask them how satisfied they are with their careers. As it turns out, office clerks rate their career happiness 2.6 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 6% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy office clerks are to similar careers in the industry. Take a look at the results below:
Salaries and satisfaction ratings in similar careers
| Career | Satisfaction | Avg Salary |
|---|---|---|
| Medical administrative assistant | 2.8 | $19k |
| Bookkeeper | 2.7 | $25k |
| Courier | 2.7 | $26k |
| Administrative assistant | 2.6 | $29k |
| Receptionist | 2.6 | $10k |
| Office clerk | 2.6 | $16k |
| Financial clerk | 2.5 | $39k |
| Teller | 2.5 | $19k |
| Maitre d' | 2.5 | $1k |
| Postal service worker | 2.4 | $27k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are office clerks happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do office clerks find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as office clerks?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are office clerk’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are office clerks making the best use of their abilities?
Are office clerks happy with their salary?
Office clerks rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.8/5. Office clerks tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.
We asked office clerks how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
2.8 out of 5 stars
3960 office clerks
8% of office clerks rated their compensation 5 stars
22% of office clerks rated their compensation 4 stars
31% of office clerks rated their compensation 3 stars
22% of office clerks rated their compensation 2 stars
17% of office clerks rated their compensation 1 stars
Do office clerks find their jobs meaningful?
On average, office clerks rate the meaningfulness of their work a 2.1/5. The majority of office clerks struggle to find any sort of meaning in their work, likely resulting in less satisfaction with the career overall.
We asked office clerks how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
2.1 out of 5 stars
3972 office clerks
4% of office clerks rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
8% of office clerks rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
20% of office clerks rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
27% of office clerks rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
40% of office clerks rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as office clerks?
Office clerks rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.4/5. The majority of office clerks don’t see personality fit as a hinderence in their career.
We asked office clerks how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
3.4 out of 5 stars
4263 office clerks
18% of office clerks rated their career fit 5 stars
33% of office clerks rated their career fit 4 stars
28% of office clerks rated their career fit 3 stars
13% of office clerks rated their career fit 2 stars
8% of office clerks rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is an office clerk’s work environment?
As a whole, office clerks rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.2/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.
We asked office clerks how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.2 out of 5 stars
4261 office clerks
13% of office clerks rated their work environment 5 stars
30% of office clerks rated their work environment 4 stars
28% of office clerks rated their work environment 3 stars
18% of office clerks rated their work environment 2 stars
11% of office clerks rated their work environment 1 stars
Are office clerks making the best use of their abilities?
Former office clerks on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 2.3/5. Most feel that their skills are being underutilized in the career, probably leading to more general dissatisfaction with being an office clerk.
We asked office clerks how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
2.3 out of 5 stars
4275 office clerks
5% of office clerks rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
12% of office clerks rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
22% of office clerks rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
29% of office clerks rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
31% of office clerks rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars