Best programs to become a brokerage clerk
You do not need a college degree to become a brokerage clerk. BLS lists a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical entry-level education. The field of study that leads most directly to this job is Accounting Technology/Technician and Bookkeeping (IPEDS completions).
1 college program at 644 schools trains brokerage clerks, graduating 18,452 people a year (IPEDS completions). The job pays a median of $65,750 (BLS OEWS May 2025).
About brokerage clerks
Perform duties related to the purchase, sale, or holding of securities. Duties include writing orders for stock purchases or sales, computing transfer taxes, verifying stock transactions, accepting and delivering securities, tracking stock price fluctuations, computing equity, distributing dividends, and keeping records of daily transactions and holdings.
Best programs to study to become a brokerage clerk
Ranked by graduates per year (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are College Scorecard figures for people who finished the program, reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. That is a different measurement from the occupation-wide wages further down this page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CIP 52.0302 | 18,452 | 100.0% | 644 | $51,824 | $24,433 |
Top 50 schools by graduates into this job
Counting every feeder program a school offers, not just its largest one.
Fields of study that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level, the tier our program pages are built on. Numbers are graduates per year.
What brokerage clerks earn
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
Top-paying states
Top-paying metro areas
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Where the jobs are, state by state
Pick a state for in-state pay, the schools there, and the programs they run.
| State | Median pay | Jobs | Concentration | Schools | Graduates / yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | $77,960 | 4,740 | 1.13× | 115 | 4,275 |
| Florida | $63,130 | 1,830 | 0.80× | 42 | 2,531 |
| Georgia | $61,570 | 540 | 0.48× | 27 | 1,170 |
| Washington | $73,120 | 140 | 0.17× | 28 | 1,044 |
| Indianamoderate | $58,290 | 1,260 | 1.70× | 4 | 980 |
| New York | $78,930 | 5,950 | 2.66× | 42 | 917 |
| Wisconsin | $63,870 | 460 | 0.67× | 17 | 825 |
| Texas | $63,060 | 1,300 | 0.40× | 31 | 602 |
| Utahmoderate | $67,410 | 320 | 0.80× | 3 | 594 |
| Illinois | $63,350 | 2,060 | 1.46× | 26 | 503 |
| Ohio | $64,020 | 800 | 0.62× | 23 | 444 |
| Michigan | $73,350 | 430 | 0.42× | 28 | 413 |
| Oregon | $72,250 | 470 | 1.04× | 14 | 397 |
| Louisiana | $61,500 | — | — | 5 | 374 |
| Minnesota | $62,110 | 960 | 1.41× | 20 | 331 |
| Pennsylvania | $60,390 | 1,470 | 1.05× | 16 | 257 |
| New Jersey | $74,830 | 3,260 | 3.30× | 14 | 237 |
| Colorado | $60,950 | 220 | 0.32× | 10 | 233 |
| Missouri | — | 630 | 0.93× | 9 | 186 |
| Maryland | $62,080 | 560 | 0.88× | 14 | 184 |
| Arizona | $61,900 | 940 | 1.25× | 11 | 180 |
| Mississippi | $58,200 | 40 | 0.15× | 12 | 102 |
| Massachusetts | $63,640 | 890 | 1.06× | 8 | 100 |
| District of Columbiamoderate | $95,450 | — | — | 3 | 95 |
| Tennessee | $64,610 | 370 | 0.49× | 6 | 94 |
| Arkansas | $58,670 | 90 | 0.30× | 7 | 88 |
| Iowa | $56,360 | 160 | 0.43× | 5 | 88 |
| Kansas | $49,990 | 310 | 0.92× | 9 | 79 |
| Alabama | — | 110 | 0.23× | 9 | 77 |
| West Virginia | — | 130 | 0.81× | 5 | 65 |
| South Carolinamoderate | $59,710 | 440 | 0.82× | 4 | 49 |
| Nebraskalimited | $60,880 | 440 | 1.87× | 2 | 34 |
| South Dakotamoderate | $56,080 | 130 | 1.27× | 4 | 31 |
| Montana | $48,360 | 110 | 0.94× | 8 | 30 |
| Vermontlimited | $78,200 | 30 | 0.45× | 1 | 18 |
| North Carolinalimited | $60,950 | 400 | 0.35× | 1 | 15 |
| Kentuckylimited | $57,690 | — | — | 2 | 12 |
| Virginialimited | $62,560 | 750 | 0.79× | 1 | 8 |
| Mainelimited | $72,840 | 80 | 0.51× | 1 | 4 |
| Delawarelimited | $61,390 | — | — | 1 | 3 |
| New Hampshirelimited | $68,140 | 200 | 1.27× | 1 | 3 |
| Connecticutlimited | $75,330 | 420 | 1.07× | 1 | 1 |
Skills and knowledge
From O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupational database. Importance is a 1 to 5 scale.
What they do day to day
- Correspond with customers and confer with coworkers to answer inquiries, discuss market fluctuations, or resolve account problems.
- Document security transactions, such as purchases, sales, conversions, redemptions, or payments, using computers, accounting ledgers, or certificate records.
- File, type, or operate standard office machines.
- Perform clerical tasks, such as answering phones or distributing mail.
- Prepare forms, such as receipts, withdrawal orders, transmittal papers, or transfer confirmations, based on transaction requests from stockholders.
- Schedule and coordinate transfer and delivery of security certificates between companies, departments, and customers.
- Monitor daily stock prices and compute fluctuations to determine the need for additional collateral to secure loans.
- Verify ownership and transaction information and dividend distribution instructions to ensure conformance with governmental regulations, using stock records and reports.
Skills
- Active Listening3.9
- Speaking3.9
- Reading Comprehension3.8
- Critical Thinking3.4
- Writing3.1
- Monitoring3.1
- Mathematics3.0
- Active Learning3.0
Knowledge areas
- English Language4.1
- Customer and Personal Service3.8
- Mathematics3.5
- Computers and Electronics3.3
- Economics and Accounting3.2
- Administrative3.1
Abilities
- Oral Comprehension4.0
- Oral Expression3.9
- Near Vision3.8
- Written Comprehension3.8
- Speech Clarity3.6
- Speech Recognition3.6
Core activities
- Getting Information4.3
- Working with Computers4.2
- Processing Information4.1
- Communicating with People Outside the Organization4.0
- Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships3.8
- Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with Standards3.7
How to get in
How to become a brokerage clerk
- Typical entry education
- High school diploma or equivalent
- On-the-job training
- Moderate-term on-the-job training
Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.
Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 1 majors mapped to Brokerage Clerks1 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 52.0302Accounting Technology/Technician and Bookkeeping
Related careers
Jobs O*NET identifies as close to this one, with their own pay and outlook.
Common questions
What degree do you need to become a brokerage clerk?+
You do not need a college degree to become a brokerage clerk. BLS lists a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical entry-level education. The field of study that leads most directly to this job is Accounting Technology/Technician and Bookkeeping (IPEDS completions).
Which college majors lead to becoming a brokerage clerk?+
The field of study that leads most directly to this job is Accounting Technology/Technician and Bookkeeping (IPEDS completions). In all, the NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 program to this job, which graduates about 18,452 people a year.
How much do brokerage clerks earn?+
The median is $65,750 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). The middle range runs from $50,260 at the 10th percentile to $102,010 at the 90th. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.
Is demand for brokerage clerks growing?+
BLS projects a -9.5% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, decline, with roughly 4,100 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career?+
644 institutions reported graduates from at least one of the 1 program that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.
What other job titles do brokerage clerks work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Sales Trader, Sales Assistant, Trading Assistant, Registered Sales Assistant among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 43-4011.
About the data on this page
Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024-25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).
BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics
May 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.
IPEDS Completions
2024-25 (provisional)Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.
College Scorecard, Field of Study
2020-21 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.
Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA
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