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Office Clerks, General vs Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service

Side-by-side · O*NET · BLS · AI-exposure research · Anthropic Economic Index

A factual, source-backed comparison of Office Clerks, General and Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service on the dimensions both occupations carry. Every figure is a position within an independent published dataset — not a verdict on which job is better, safer, or more “future-proof.”

Office Clerks, General Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$43,630
$38,370
Employment · BLS OEWS
2,510,550
35,730
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
78th pct
88th pct

At a glance

Dimension Office Clerks, General Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service
Median pay $43,630 $38,370
Employment 2,510,550 35,730
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Declining (-6.7%) Declining (-26.3%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 282,400 2,800
Typical education · O*NET Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not. Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.
AI exposure · published exposure studies High · 78th pct High · 88th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 97th pct · 60% of tasks 92nd pct · 54% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index Automation-leaning (58.8%) Automation-leaning (43.1%)
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman Yes Yes

Pay and employment are BLS OEWS estimates; outlook and openings are BLS 2024–2034 projections; AI exposure and observed-use figures come from separate research and reflect exposure and usage, not predictions that either job will disappear. Compare like with like.

Skills

Shared: Administrative, Oral Expression, English Language, Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, Oral Comprehension, Written Comprehension, Speaking, Written Expression, Customer and Personal Service, Near Vision, Speech Recognition, Speech Clarity, Writing, Problem Sensitivity, Information Ordering, Administration and Management, Critical Thinking, Social Perceptiveness, Coordination, Service Orientation, Time Management, Deductive Reasoning, Inductive Reasoning, Category Flexibility, Selective Attention, Computers and Electronics, Monitoring, Time Sharing, Active Learning, Judgment and Decision Making, Far Vision, Mathematics, Complex Problem Solving.

Specific to Office Clerks, General

  • Instructing
  • Fluency of Ideas
  • Mathematical Reasoning
  • Persuasion
  • Negotiation
  • Number Facility

Specific to Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service

  • Telecommunications
  • Perceptual Speed
  • Auditory Attention
  • Communications and Media
  • Public Safety and Security
  • Personnel and Human Resources

Knowledge, skills & abilities O*NET rates as important for each occupation. “Shared” are common to both; the columns list what is distinctive to each (top by the order O*NET surfaces).

Tools & technology

Shared: Office suite software , Spreadsheet software , Electronic mail software , Presentation software , Word processing software , Data base user interface and query software , Operating system software , Enterprise resource planning ERP software .

Specific to Office Clerks, General

Specific to Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Office Clerks, General or Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service — tasks, the full skill graph, tools, work context, preparation, wages by percentile, industries, AI exposure and the AI work map.

More comparisons

Related occupations you can place side by side on the same sourced scale.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Office Clerks, General vs Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/compare/office-clerks-general-vs-switchboard-operators-including-answering-service

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Office Clerks, General vs Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/office-clerks-general-vs-switchboard-operators-including-answering-service

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-office-clerks-general-vs-switchboard-operators-including-answering-service,
  title  = {Office Clerks, General vs Switchboard Operators, Including Answering Service},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/compare/office-clerks-general-vs-switchboard-operators-including-answering-service}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.