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.

The occupation of "Brokerage Clerks" has an automation risk assessed at 79.0%, which is slightly below the base risk of 80.0% for this type of work. This high risk is primarily driven by the routine, rules-based nature of much of the clerical work required in this role. Advances in artificial intelligence and automation technologies have increasingly made it feasible for software systems to perform data entry, manage transactions, and carry out standard communication protocols, reducing the need for human oversight in these areas. Brokerage clerks’ workflows are highly standardized and follow predictable patterns, making them especially vulnerable to automation. The top three most automatable tasks for brokerage clerks include corresponding with customers and coworkers to answer inquiries and resolve issues, documenting transactions via computers or ledgers, and operating standard office machines such as printers and copiers. Each of these functions relies heavily on repetitive communication, data processing, and routine office management—all tasks that modern automation tools can efficiently handle. AI-powered chatbots can field routine customer inquiries, while transaction documentation and the operation of office machines can be fully managed by specialized software and automated hardware systems. These developments significantly reduce the necessity for human involvement in these clerical processes. However, some tasks within the brokerage clerk role are more resistant to automation. Preparing reports summarizing daily transactions and earnings requires judgment and adaptation to unique circumstances, while computing holdings, dividends, or fees often involves complex rules and context-sensitive decisions. Verifying ownership and transaction data to ensure compliance with governmental regulations requires careful scrutiny and cross-referencing, which is more challenging to automate reliably without risking compliance errors. The necessity for adaptability and creative problem solving in these areas is evident, though the occupation as a whole is not highly reliant on these bottleneck skills—originality, for example, accounts for only 2.4–2.6% of required skills. This low reliance on originality underscores why brokerage clerks face a substantial automation risk as many of their core duties can be effectively delegated to technology.