Career
Production, planning, and expediting clerks
Keep production on schedule and supplies flowing.
$59,650
Median pay
-1.3%
Job growth, 2025–35
32,600
Openings a year
High school diploma or equivalent
Typical education
None required
Typical time after high school
Here's what you actually need to know.
The work
What people in this job do
- Distribute production schedules or work orders to departments.
- Revise production schedules when required due to design changes, labor or material shortages, backlogs, or other interruptions, collaborating with management, marketing, sales, production, or engineering.
- Review documents, such as production schedules, work orders, or staffing tables, to determine personnel or materials requirements or material priorities.
- Arrange for delivery, assembly, or distribution of supplies or parts to expedite flow of materials and meet production schedules.
- Confer with establishment personnel, vendors, or customers to coordinate production or shipping activities and to resolve complaints or eliminate delays.
The outlook
How the forecast changed this year
The deeper question
What kind of person does this path ask you to become?
What this work centers on
O*NET interest profile, scored 1–7.
The work
Do you want most of your days spent on information & systems, then persuasion & leadership?
Responsibility
Are you willing to be the one responsible for this?
“Distribute production schedules or work orders to departments.”
Development
What would you need to build over the next 5–10 years?
Reading Comprehension, Speaking, Active Listening, Time Management.
Trade-offs
What does it ask of you in exchange?
No degree beyond high school, though moderate-term on-the-job training is typical, for a median of $59,650 a year and 32,600 openings nationally each year.
Paths in
Degrees that lead here
- Parts, Warehousing, and Inventory Management OperationsCIP 52.0409
Paths across
Careers that use similar skills
- Project Management Specialists$102,320 · +6.7%
- Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerks$45,260 · -7.6%
- First-Line Supervisors of Helpers, Laborers, and Material Movers, Hand
- First-Line Supervisors of Production and Operating Workers$74,450 · +1.8%
- Weighers, Measurers, Checkers, and Samplers, Recordkeeping$46,380 · -4.8%
Ask anything about this career.
“Would this make sense if I don't want to sit at a desk all day?” Answers will come from the sources on this page, with citations. Coming soon.
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Sources
- BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- BLS Employment Projections, 2024–34 (archived), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- O*NET 31.0 Database (August 2026), National Center for O*NET Development / U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 Crosswalk, NCES and BLS. Retrieved 2026-10-01.