Typists and word processing operators
Almost every task can be done with generative AI, with little uncertainty. This is where the change is biggest — and where switching makes most sense.
Exposure is not job loss: it shows how much of the work generative AI could do today. Whether that turns into transformation, productivity gains or cuts depends on employers, regulation — and on you.
0 = today’s generative AI cannot perform any of the job’s tasks, 100 = it could do all of them fully. The pale band is the spread across tasks.
Work out your own score ↓What can you do?
🤖 Written with AIThis text was written by artificial intelligence from the data points shown; it is built on verified figures but may contain mistakes.· 11/10/2026How is it made?
With an exposure score of 65/100, typists face significant task shifts as AI accelerates transcription and proofreading. However, steady replacement demand keeps roles viable as work shifts toward document coordination and complex editorial quality control.
What changes
- Automated tools increasingly handle grammar, spelling correction, and standardized document formatting.
- Speech-to-text algorithms speed up initial dictation, audio transcription, and media subtitling.
- Intelligent filing systems automate document sorting, metadata tagging, and electronic storage retrieval.
What stays human
- Deciphering ambiguous instructions and gathering disparate source materials for complex document drafts.
- Interpreting poor-quality audio, regional accents, and specialized jargon in sensitive transcriptions.
- Maintaining strict confidentiality and ensuring contextual accuracy in sensitive legal or medical records.
What to learn
- Mastering AI-assisted transcription and post-editing workflows to review automated drafts efficiently.
- Learning advanced electronic records management, database filing systems, and data compliance protocols.
- Specializing in certified legal or medical transcription requiring rigorous domain terminology expertise.
Task by task
The ILO scored every task of the occupation separately, as the average of two AI models (GPT-4o and Gemini). The pale band is the range between the two models' scores, the dot the ILO's final score (for a few tasks expert review placed it outside the band).
- Checking completed work for proper spelling, grammar, punctuation and formatting70
- Filing and storing completed documents on computer hard drive or disk, or maintain a computer filing system to store, retrieve or update documents69
- Reproducing the spoken word, environmental sounds and song lyrics as captions for cinema and television programming69
- Taking dictation and recording other matter in shorthand67
- Typing written material from rough drafts, corrected copies, voice recordings or shorthand using a computer, word processor or typewriter67
- Transcribing information recorded in shorthand and on sound recording equipment.60
- Gathering and arranging the material to be typed, following instructions56
How much does it affect you?
Every job is different: mark which of these tasks you do and how much, and we'll compute your own, time-weighted score.
For each task: I don't do it · sometimes · most of my job.
- Checking completed work for proper spelling, grammar, punctuation and formatting(70)
- Filing and storing completed documents on computer hard drive or disk, or maintain a computer filing system to store, retrieve or update documents(69)
- Reproducing the spoken word, environmental sounds and song lyrics as captions for cinema and television programming(69)
- Taking dictation and recording other matter in shorthand(67)
- Typing written material from rough drafts, corrected copies, voice recordings or shorthand using a computer, word processor or typewriter(67)
- Transcribing information recorded in shorthand and on sound recording equipment.(60)
- Gathering and arranging the material to be typed, following instructions(56)
You are exactly at the occupation average. (The occupation's score: 65.)
About 100% of your working time goes to highly exposed tasks (score ≥ 50).
- • Checking completed work for proper spelling, grammar, punctuation and formatting
- • Filing and storing completed documents on computer hard drive or disk, or maintain a computer filing system to store, retrieve or update documents
- • Gathering and arranging the material to be typed, following instructions
- • Transcribing information recorded in shorthand and on sound recording equipment.
An estimate from the ILO task scores. Everything is computed in your browser — nothing is sent or stored.
How many people work in this occupational group?
Share of the General and keyboard clerks group in total employment, by country (Eurostat, ISCO 2-digit — 4-digit breakdowns are not public by country).
Table view
| Country | General and keyboard clerks |
|---|---|
| Greece | 7.3% · 314 thousand · 2025 |
| Germany | 6.4% · 2,692 thousand · 2025 |
| Italy | 5.9% · 1,413 thousand · 2025 |
| Portugal | 5.2% · 273 thousand · 2025 |
| Switzerland | 5.1% · 245 thousand · 2025 |
| Austria | 4.4% · 200 thousand · 2025 |
| Cyprus | 4.3% · 22 thousand · 2025 |
| Malta | 3.7% · 12 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovakia | 3.7% · 96 thousand · 2025 |
| Poland | 3.6% · 617 thousand · 2025 |
| Denmark | 3.5% · 109 thousand · 2025 |
| France | 3.3% · 955 thousand · 2025 |
| Croatia | 2.9% · 49 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovenia | 2.8% · 28 thousand · 2025 |
| Belgium | 2.8% · 144 thousand · 2025 |
| Hungary | 2.8% · 131 thousand · 2025 |
| Spain | 2.3% · 521 thousand · 2025 |
| Czechia | 2.0% · 105 thousand · 2025 |
| Romania | 2.0% · 152 thousand · 2025 |
| Luxembourg | 1.9% · 6 thousand · 2025 |
| Norway | 1.8% · 52 thousand · 2025 |
| Netherlands | 1.5% · 147 thousand · 2025 |
| Bulgaria | 1.4% · 41 thousand · 2025 |
| Ireland | 1.2% · 34 thousand · 2025 |
| Finland | 1.2% · 31 thousand · 2025 |
| Latvia | 0.8% · 7 thousand · 2025 |
| Sweden | 0.8% · 43 thousand · 2025 |
| Iceland | 0.8% · 2 thousand · 2025 |
| United Kingdom | 0.7% · 238 thousand · 2025 |
| Lithuania | 0.7% · 10 thousand · 2025 |
| Estonia | 0.4% · 3 thousand · 2025 |
What do they earn?
Mean gross monthly earnings in the major occupational group (Clerical support workers). Eurostat's earnings survey only publishes pay by occupation at 1 digit, so this is the job's broader group. Enterprises with 10+ employees, 2022.
By country, at purchasing power parity (PPS/month), so countries with different price levels can be compared.
- Switzerland4,326
- Luxembourg3,358
- Denmark3,338
- Belgium3,291
- Norway3,160
- Germany2,927
- Ireland2,900
- Iceland2,825
- Austria2,768
- Netherlands2,680
- EU272,590
- Italy2,521
- Sweden2,451
- Finland2,386
- Spain2,121
- Slovenia2,111
- Malta2,089
- Lithuania2,049
- France2,018
- Croatia1,847
- Greece1,837
- Poland1,796
- Romania1,755
- Estonia1,740
- Czechia1,725
- Cyprus1,685
- Hungary1,682
- Latvia1,617
- Slovakia1,583
- Portugal1,421
- Bulgaria1,203
Source: Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey (earn_ses22_21), every four years. The United Kingdom is not covered by the survey.
Outlook to 2035
Employment in the General and keyboard clerks group according to Cedefop's 2026 forecast.
thousand · Cedefop Skills Forecast 2026 · 2026–2035: projection
Replacement demand is the jobs left by people retiring or changing careers — even a shrinking occupation can have many openings.
Related occupations
Sources: ILO WP140 (2025) · Eurostat lfsa_egai2d · Cedefop Skills Forecast 2026 · WEF Future of Jobs 2025 · ESCO. The exposure score measures how much of an occupation's tasks generative AI could perform — not whether the job disappears. For information only, not career advice. How do we calculate this?