Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks held about 2 million jobs in 2000. Although they can be found in all industries and levels of government, a growing number work for personnel supply firms, the result of an increase in outsourcing of this occupation. Approximately 1 out of 4 bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks worked part time in 2000.
Little or no change is expected in the employment of bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks through 2010. Virtually all job openings will stem from replacement needs. Each year, numerous jobs will become available as these clerks transfer to other occupations or leave the labor force. The large size of this occupation ensures plentiful job openings, including many opportunities for temporary and part-time work, even though turnover is lower than for other clerical jobs.
Although a growing economy will result in more financial transactions and other activities that require these clerical workers, the continuing spread of office automation will lift worker productivity and contribute to the lack of growth in employment. In addition, organizations of all sizes will continue to consolidate various recordkeeping functions, thus reducing the demand for these clerks. Specialized clerks will be in much less demand than those who can do a wider range of accounting activities. Demand for full-charge bookkeepers is expected to increase as they are called upon to do much of the work of accountants. Those with several years of accounting or bookkeeper certification will have the best job prospects.
Financial clerks held more than 3.7 million jobs in 2000. The following tabulation shows employment in individual clerical occupations:
| Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks | 1,991,000 |
| Billing and posting clerks and machine operators | 506,000 |
| Tellers | 499,000 |
| Bill and account collectors | 400,000 |
| Payroll and timekeeping clerks | 201,000 |
| Procurement clerks | 76,000 |
| Gaming cage workers | 22,000 |
These workers are employed in virtually every industry, including manufacturing, business and health services, and government. However, it is becoming more common for these clerks to work for companies that specialize in performing specific accounting services, such as bill collection, medical billing, and payroll services as companies seek to cut costs and outsource many administrative functions. Also, more financial clerks are finding jobs with personnel supply agencies, as companies increasingly hire temporary workers for peak periods.
All financial clerk occupations have some part-time workers, but tellers and bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks have the most with more than one-fourth working part time.
Overall employment of financial clerks is expected to grow more slowly than the average for all occupations through 2010. Despite continued growth in the volume of business transactions, rising productivity stemming from the spread of office automation, as well as organizational restructuring, will adversely affect demand for financial clerks. Turnover in this large occupation, however, will provide the most job openings. As a result, opportunities should be plentiful for full-time and part-time employment as financial clerks transfer to other occupations or leave the labor force.
Many basic data entry accounting and clerical jobs already have become heavily automated. Productivity has increased significantly, as workers increasingly use personal computers instead of manual entry and time-consuming equipment such as typewriters, adding machines, and calculators. The growing use of bar code readers, point-of-sale terminals, automated teller machines, and optical scanners that record transactions reduces much of the data entry handled by financial clerks. In addition, the use of local area networks also is facilitating electronic data interchangethe sending of data from computer to computerabolishing the need for clerks to reenter the data. To further eliminate duplicate functions, many large companies are consolidating their clerical operations in a central office where accounting, billing, personnel, and payroll functions are performed for all officesmain and satellitewithin the organization. In addition, as more companies merge or are acquired, accounting departments also are usually merged, reducing the number of financial clerks. More companies also are outsourcing their accounting functions to specialized companies that can do the job more efficiently.
Despite the expected slow growth, some financial clerks will fare better than others. The number of gaming cage workers should grow over time as more Indian tribes become involved in gaming. Also, the number of bill collectors is expected to increase as consumer debt continues to rise. The healthcare services industry is expected to hire more financial clerks, particularly billing clerks, to match the explosive growth of this sector and to process the large amounts of paperwork required to process patient claims.
