Office and Administrative Support Occupations·SOC 43-5061

Best degree programs for Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks, ranked by enrollment

1 college programs and 7 schools train Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks. Compare graduates per year, cost and pay, $59,650 median wage, 390,160 U.S. jobs. Federal data.

1 college programs at 7 schools train production, planning, and expediting clerks, graduating 242 people a year (IPEDS completions). The largest is Parts, Warehousing, and Inventory Management Operations. The job pays a median of $59,650 (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Graduates / yr
242
from every feeder program
Median annual wage
$59,650
BLS OEWS May 2025
Projected growth
-1.8%
Decline
Openings / yr
34,100
new plus replacement
Schools
7
with a feeder program
States with jobs
4
BLS reports wages

About production, planning, and expediting clerks

Coordinate and expedite the flow of work and materials within or between departments of an establishment according to production schedule. Duties include reviewing and distributing production, work, and shipment schedules; conferring with department supervisors to determine progress of work and completion dates; and compiling reports on progress of work, inventory levels, costs, and production problems.

Also calledExpeditorMaterials PlannerProduction PlannerProduction SchedulerTimerJob TracerLot WorkerBeef TaggerJob CheckerJob SpotterKit PlannerPlant Clerk

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.

1 degree programs that lead to this job

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.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
1
CIP 52.0409
242
100.0%
7$25,993$9,500

Top 7 schools by graduates into this job

Counting every feeder program a school offers, not just its largest one.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad rateNet priceAcceptance
1William Rainey Harper College
Palatine, IL Public · 1 feeder programs
67Parts, Warehousing, and Inventory Management Operations48%
2Kaskaskia College
Centralia, IL Public · 1 feeder programs
45Parts, Warehousing, and Inventory Management Operations49%
3Lake Land College
Mattoon, IL Public · 1 feeder programs
45Parts, Warehousing, and Inventory Management Operations58%
4Grand Rapids Community College
Grand Rapids, MI Public · 1 feeder programs
37Parts, Warehousing, and Inventory Management Operations21%
5College of Lake County
Grayslake, IL Public · 1 feeder programs
20Parts, Warehousing, and Inventory Management Operations37%
6Tarrant County College District
Fort Worth, TX Public · 1 feeder programs
20Parts, Warehousing, and Inventory Management Operations34%
7Pima Community College
Tucson, AZ Public · 1 feeder programs
8Parts, Warehousing, and Inventory Management Operations28%

What production, planning, and expediting clerks earn

What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.

Median annual wage
$59,650
Mean annual
$62,150
Median hourly
$28.68/hr
People employed
390,160
What the range looks like
10th pct$40,080Median$59,65090th pct$86,000

Top-paying metro areas

Idaho Falls, ID
$83,790median
200 jobs
Bremerton-Silverdale-Port Orchard, WA
$76,070median
480 jobs
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
$76,500median
3,360 jobs
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
$76,900median
7,220 jobs
Bismarck, ND
$67,430median
40 jobs
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
$81,850median
13,160 jobs
Bay City, MI
$74,030median
60 jobs
Decatur, IL
$73,680median
70 jobs

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
-1.8%
Decline
Openings per year
34,100
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
-7,100
388,800 → 381,700
Typical entry education
High school diploma or equivalent
Plus moderate-term on-the-job training

Where the jobs are, state by state

Pick a state for in-state pay, the schools there, and the programs they run.

This occupation state by state: pay, jobs, and schools
StateMedian payJobsConcentrationSchoolsGraduates / yr
Illinoismoderate$57,88011,9000.78×4177
Michiganlimited$61,6707,5600.68×137
Texaslimited$55,85033,0800.94×120
Arizonalimited$58,5809,7801.20×18

Skills and tools

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

  • 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.
  • Requisition and maintain inventories of materials or supplies necessary to meet production demands.
  • Confer with department supervisors or other personnel to assess progress and discuss needed changes.
  • Plan production commitments or timetables for business units, specific programs, or jobs, using sales forecasts.

Skills

  • Reading Comprehension3.6
  • Speaking3.6
  • Active Listening3.5
  • Critical Thinking3.4
  • Writing3.1
  • Monitoring3.1
  • Active Learning2.8
  • Mathematics2.6

Knowledge areas

  • Production and Processing4.3
  • Customer and Personal Service3.8
  • English Language3.6
  • Administrative3.6
  • Administration and Management3.5
  • Computers and Electronics3.3

Abilities

  • Oral Comprehension3.9
  • Information Ordering3.9
  • Oral Expression3.8
  • Problem Sensitivity3.8
  • Near Vision3.6
  • Written Comprehension3.6

Core activities

  • Working with Computers4.3
  • Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates4.3
  • Getting Information4.1
  • Processing Information3.8
  • Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events3.8
  • Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings3.8

Tools and technology

hotmarks an O*NET hot technology
Adobe AcrobathotAdobe IllustratorhotAdobe InDesignhotAdobe PhotoshophotGoogle DocshotIntuit QuickBookshotMEDITECH softwarehotMicrosoft AccesshotMicrosoft ExcelhotMicrosoft Office softwarehot

How to get in

How to become a Production

Job zone 2 of 5 · SVP Below 6.0
Typical entry education
High school diploma or equivalent
On-the-job training
Moderate-term on-the-job training

Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.

Some occupations may need little or no previous experience; others require several months to a year of experience. For example, landscaping and groundskeeping workers might require very little training or previous experience, while agricultural equipment operators can benefit from on-the job training.

Ranges from a few days to one year of on-the-job training.

Every major mapped to this job

The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.

All 1 majors mapped to Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks1 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
  • 52.0409Parts, Warehousing, and Inventory Management Operations

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 Production?+

High school diploma or equivalent is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Parts, Warehousing, and Inventory Management Operations, which awarded 242 degrees in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.

Which college majors lead to becoming a Production?+

The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Business Operations Support and Assistant Services. Together they graduate about 242 people a year.

How much do production, planning, and expediting clerks earn?+

The median is $59,650 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). The middle range runs from $40,080 at the 10th percentile to $86,000 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 production, planning, and expediting clerks growing?+

BLS projects a -1.8% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, decline, with roughly 34,100 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.

How many schools offer programs for this career?+

7 institutions reported graduates from at least one of the 1 programs 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 production, planning, and expediting clerks work under?+

Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Expeditor, Materials Planner, Production Planner, Production Scheduler among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 43-5061.

Production, Planning, and Expediting Clerks by stateIllinoisMichiganTexasArizona

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 2025

    Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.

  • BLS Employment Projections

    2024–34

    Projected 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 cohorts

    Median graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.

  • Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes

    latest available

    Graduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.

  • NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk

    CIP 2020 / SOC 2018

    Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.

  • O*NET Database 30.3

    30.3

    Tasks, 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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