Office and administrative support
Correspondence clerk
Compose letters or electronic correspondence in reply to requests for merchandise, damage claims, credit and other information, delinquent accounts, incorrect billings, or unsatisfactory services. Duties may include gathering data to formulate reply and preparing correspondence.
Median pay
$46,800
Growth to 2035
−6%
declining
Openings a year
500
Time to qualify*
1 month
* From a bachelor's degree in an unrelated field.
Pay
Correspondence clerk
Getting in
- Typical entry education
- High school diploma or equivalent
- On-the-job training
- Short-term on-the-job training
- Prior experience
- None
What the work is like
Dealing with the public
Unpleasant or angry people
Time pressure
Cost of a mistake
Freedom to make decisions
Repeating the same tasks
Time sitting
Time standing
Correspondence clerk: 29% usually work over 40 hours a week
Core tasks
- Maintain files and control records to show correspondence activities.
- Read incoming correspondence to ascertain nature of writers' concerns and to determine disposition of correspondence.
- Gather records pertinent to specific problems, review them for completeness and accuracy, and attach records to correspondence as necessary.
- Prepare documents and correspondence, such as damage claims, credit and billing inquiries, invoices, and service complaints.
- Compile data from records to prepare periodic reports.
- Compose letters in reply to correspondence concerning such items as requests for merchandise, damage claims, credit information requests, delinquent accounts, incorrect billing, or unsatisfactory service.
- Route correspondence to other departments for reply.
Also called: Chargeback Specialist · Claims Correspondence Clerk · Correspondence Clerk · Correspondence Coordinator · Correspondence Representative (Correspondence Rep) · Correspondent · Dispute Resolution Analyst · Dispute Specialist
Outlook and AI
Correspondence clerks held 4,800 jobs in 2025. BLS projects 4,500 by 2035 (−6%, declining; all jobs: +3.5%).
Productivity change - share decreases as increasingly capable document automation and virtual messaging systems increase the productivity of these workers.
Compare with
- Correspondence clerk vs. Office clerks, general
- Correspondence clerk vs. File clerk
- Correspondence clerk vs. Administrative assistant
- Correspondence clerk vs. Legal secretaries and administrative assistants
- Correspondence clerk vs. Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks
- Correspondence clerk vs. Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants
- Correspondence clerk vs. Billing and posting clerks
- Correspondence clerk vs. Customer service representative
- Correspondence clerk vs. Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks
- Correspondence clerk vs. Insurance claims and policy processing clerks