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Clerical support workers · code 4110

General office clerks

General office clerks perform a range of clerical and administrative tasks according to established procedures. Tasks include - (a) recording, preparing, sorting, classifying and filing information; (b) sorting, opening and sending mail; (c) photocopying and faxing documents; (d) preparing reports and correspondence of a routine nature; (e) recording issue of equipment to staff; (f) responding to telephone or electronic inquiries or forwarding to appropriate person; (g) checking figures, preparing invoices and recording details of financial transactions made; (h) transcribing information onto computers, and proofreading and correcting copy. Examples of the occupations classified here: - General office clerk - Office clerk Note In distinguishing the work of general office clerks from that of workers classified in Unit Group 4120: Secretaries (general), it should be noted that the work of secretaries is primarily concerned with the transcription, formatting and processing of correspondence and other documentation. Whilst general office clerks may perform some work of this nature, the transcription and processing of documentation is not the main focus of the work.

The ILO’s highest group: nearly every task is affected. It ranks 415 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • office clerk

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

40.5
Holds up
against AI
Exposed: Gradient 4

AI could take on 59.5 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 59.5 = 40.5

That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.

27.6
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, averaged across 2 US jobs

14.8
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 17.9 · hand skill 16 · cramped spaces 10.3 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on under 50 Less than half hands-on

Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

What this number leaves out This job rates 27.6 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.

The tasks behind the score

The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.

The task AI could do most of scores 71.3, while the average is 59.5. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.

  1. 71.3

    Transcribing information onto computers, and proofreading and correcting copy.

    Medium
  2. 68.5

    Checking figures, preparing invoices and recording details of financial transactions made

    Medium
  3. 65

    Preparing reports and correspondence of a routine nature

    Medium
  4. 63

    Responding to telephone or electronic enquiries or forwarding to appropriate person

    Medium
  5. 59.5

    Recording, preparing, sorting, classifying and filing information

    Medium
  6. 56.5

    Recording issue of equipment to staff

    Medium
  7. 53.5

    Photocopying and faxing documents

    Medium
  8. 38.8

    Sorting, opening and sending mail

    Low

8 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.7-work-setting

Helped, or replaced?

The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.

2 Australian jobs match this one, and we've simply averaged them. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

AI helps you
63.5
AI does it for you
54

Helping wins by 9.5 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 5311, 5992

Compared with similar jobs

There are 29 jobs in the “Clerical support workers” group, averaging 46.8. This one is below that.