Bill and Account Collector
| Median wage (USD) | 47030 |
|---|---|
| Projected employment growth (%) | -10 |
| AI exposure (%) | 43 |
| Maximum exposure (%) | 75 |
| Source | eloundou |
| What AI changes in this occupation | Dunning letters and scripted calls, flagging overdue accounts, skip tracing and posting payments are moving to collection software and voice agents BLS projects a 10% decline in employment from 2025 to 2035 — 160,200 jobs down to 143,400 — and the pressure comes as much from collection software and automated calling systems as from generative AI Negotiating a repayment plan the debtor can actually keep to, understanding an over-indebted situation and talking to someone in difficulty remain human — that is where the transition happens |
| Key skills | AI-assisted collections · negotiation and repayment plans · assessing the debtor's financial situation · multichannel dunning (mail, phone, SMS) · debt-collection law (FDCPA, mini-Miranda, local rules) · case records and CRM · de-escalation and handling hostility · reading metrics (recovery rate, call volumes, quotas) |
| Courses to get ahead | Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills · Coursera · 2 weeks at 10 hours a week · 88 · The core of the job automation does not take: understanding the debtor's real constraint and building an agreement they can keep to. It is also the skill that carries over unchanged to credit counselling. Customer Service Fundamentals · Coursera · 1 week at 10 hours a week · 86 · The most direct way out: keep the phone and the customer record, lose overdue-bill chasing. The moves are the same — listening, explaining, finding a solution — but for a customer who calls on their own rather than a debtor you are chasing. Financial Accounting Fundamentals · Coursera · 4 weeks at 6 hours a week · 82 · From collections to bookkeeping: the path to the bookkeeping clerk, better paid ($50,670) and markedly less exposed to AI (31% against 43%). It is the most solid transition on this card. Introduction to Customer Service · Coursera · 2 weeks at 10 hours a week · 78 Generative AI for Customer Service Automation · Coursera · Self-paced · 76 Credit Risk Management: Frameworks and Strategies · Coursera · Self-paced · 74 |
| Occupations to pivot toward | Customer Service Representative · 44770 · -5 · 70 Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerk · 50670 · -6 · 31 Credit Counselor · 52230 · 3 · 69 |
| Skills to acquire for the pivot | Eloundou measures this occupation's exposure at 43% (human β) and up to 75% (human ζ): keeping the collection record, notifying and chasing overdue accounts, automated monitoring of delinquent accounts, posting payments, skip tracing and filing correspondence are largely delegable to AI, but negotiating a repayment plan, advising the debtor, discussing the reasons for the delay and negotiating a credit extension remain human. The β of 43% places bill and account collectors just above the 40% line that separates low from moderate exposure, and well below customer service representatives (70), credit counsellors (69) and tax examiners (68); it is close to paralegals (45) and human resources managers (45). The gap with customer service is the interesting part: collections is less exposed than service, because the part that matters — getting a reluctant person to commit to paying — resists better than a standardised service exchange. Method note: O*NET (43-3011.00, "Bill and Account Collectors") lists fifteen scored tasks, thirteen core and two supplemental, and no emerging ones; the most important are recording financial status and collection efforts (91/100), locating and notifying delinquent accounts (88/100), monitoring overdue accounts with automated systems (88/100) and arranging repayment (86/100), and the exposed/resistant split follows those importance scores. The GPT-4 self-rated series (β 70, ζ 100) is kept in expositionGpt4 and is not displayed, in line with the decision of 21 August 2026. BLS projects a 10% decline in bill and account collector employment from 2025 to 2035: the 160,200 jobs of 2025 would fall to 143,400, about 16,700 fewer, despite roughly 11,200 openings a year from turnover and retirement. The reason BLS gives is not primarily AI: wider use of enhanced collection software and automated calling systems raises productivity and lets collectors handle more accounts with fewer employees, while the need to collect student, credit card and mortgage debt still supports demand. This is one of the steepest declines in the repository, comparable to telemarketers (-21%) and cashiers (-10%). Within the BLS "financial clerks" group, which declines 7%, bill and account collectors do worse than bookkeeping clerks (-6%). This card's three pivots frame the way out: customer service representatives also decline (-5%) but number 2,666,000 jobs, bookkeeping clerks decline 6% with 1,532,400 jobs, and credit counsellors are the only one growing (+3%) — with just 31,200 jobs and a bachelor's degree required, which makes it a narrow target. The median salary for bill and account collectors is $47,030 a year ($22.61 an hour), the May 2025 figure from the BLS OEWS survey published on the Occupational Outlook Handbook page "Bill and Account Collectors" (code 43-3011). The lowest 10% earn less than $34,400 and the highest 10% more than $65,580: this is one of the widest interdecile spreads in the repository, because commission-based collection pay pulls up the top of the distribution. By industry, the median runs from $38,020 in business support services — the largest employer, 25% of jobs — to $50,340 in management of companies, via $48,730 in credit intermediation and $48,600 in healthcare and social assistance. The occupation sits below the median for all occupations ($50,980) and below the financial clerks group ($48,620), but above customer service representatives ($44,770): collections pays better than inbound service, which explains why people enter it and hesitate to leave. Every value on this card comes from a named source; none is left as an estimate. |
| GPT-4 exposure — beta / zeta (%) | 70 · 100 |