File Clerks
File correspondence, cards, invoices, receipts, and other records in alphabetical or numerical order or according to the filing system used. Locate and remove material from file when requested.
73,440 people do this job in the US. $43,600 a year.
of the working time. Estimate.
- 53%
- 0%
- 47%
Measured, from Anthropic's usage data (2025). Counts help on part of a task.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 4.4 h long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 3%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 26%. Today's estimate: 31%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
The tasks
Sorted by . 19 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Modify or improve filing systems or implement new filing systems.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 22% | 4.2 h1.7 h to 1.7 work days | 23%Half by Mar 2027 | |
| Perform general office activities, such as typing, answering telephones, operating office machines, processing mail, or securing confidential materials.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 12% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Design forms related to filing systems.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 11% | 2.5 h50 min to 6.7 h | 46%Half by Oct 2026 | |
| Eliminate outdated or unnecessary materials, destroying them or transferring them to inactive storage, according to file maintenance guidelines or legal requirements.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 9% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Perform periodic inspections of materials or files to ensure correct placement, legibility, or proper condition.Done daily by most who do it. | 9% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Keep records of materials filed or removed, using logbooks or computers and generate computerized reports.Done hourly or more by most who do it. | 5% | 25 min8 min to 1.3 h | 97%Half by now | |
| Complete general financial activities, such as processing accounts payable, reviewing invoices, collecting cash payments, or issuing receipts.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 33 min13 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Input data, such as file numbers, new or updated information, or document information codes into computer systems to support document and information retrieval.Done daily by most who do it. AI observed on this task. | 4% | 21 min8 min to 50 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Gather materials to be filed from departments or employees.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 25 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Sort or classify information according to guidelines, such as content, purpose, user criteria, or chronological, alphabetical, or numerical order.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 21 min8 min to 50 min | 100%Half by now | |
| Find, retrieve, and make copies of information from files in response to requests and deliver information to authorized users.Done daily by most who do it. | 4% | 21 min8 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Scan or read incoming materials to determine how and where they should be classified or filed.Done daily by most who do it. | 3% | 13 min4 min to 38 min | 99%Half by now |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).