Office and Administrative Support · Holland code CR

Office Machine Operators, Except Computer

Operate one or more of a variety of office machines, such as photocopying, photographic, and duplicating machines, or other office machines.

Also called: Copy Center Operator, Copy Machine Operator, Key Operator, Machine Operator, Copy Technician, Graphics Production Specialist, Printing Services Coordinator, Reprographics Technician.

O*NET 43-9071.00

At a glance

US median annual pay: $40,960; Middle half earn $36,090 to $47,910. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
Most common education: High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED); 68% of workers surveyed by O*NET report this level.
Preparation needed: Job Zone 2 of 5; Some preparation. Zone 1 is little or none; zone 5 is graduate-level.

What the work involves

The tasks workers in this occupation rate as most important, from the O*NET survey.

Read job orders to determine the type of work to be done, the quantities to be produced, and the materials needed.
Deliver completed work.
Place original copies in feed trays, feed originals into feed rolls, or position originals on tables beneath camera lenses.
Sort, assemble, and proof completed work.
Operate office machines such as high speed business photocopiers, readers, scanners, addressing machines, stencil-cutting machines, microfilm readers or printers, folding and inserting machines, bursters, and binder machines.
Complete records of production, including work volumes and outputs, materials used, and any backlogs.
Compute prices for services and receive payment, or provide supervisors with billing information.
Set up and adjust machines, regulating factors such as speed, ink flow, focus, and number of copies.

Skills and knowledge it leans on

Skills

Reading Comprehension3.1 / 5
Active Listening3.0 / 5
Speaking3.0 / 5
Critical Thinking3.0 / 5
Monitoring3.0 / 5
Writing2.9 / 5

Knowledge areas

English Language3.9 / 5
Customer and Personal Service3.8 / 5
Production and Processing3.4 / 5
Computers and Electronics3.0 / 5
Mathematics2.9 / 5
Administrative2.7 / 5

Importance ratings on O*NET’s 1 to 5 scale. Higher means the occupation depends on it more.

Who tends to enjoy it

How strongly this occupation draws on each of the six Holland interest types, which is the same profile the career interests test compares you against.

Realistic59
Investigative19
Artistic3
Social11
Enterprising18
Conventional93

The same work abroad

Other countries classify jobs differently, so these are the closest matches through the international ISCO-08 standard, not exact equivalents.

European occupation titles (ESCO)

office clerk · DE Büroassistent/Büroassistentin · FR employé de bureau/employée de bureau
typist · DE Textypist/Textypistin · FR dactylographe
proofreader · DE Korrekturleser/Korrekturleserin · FR correcteur/correctrice
prepress operator · DE Druckvorstufen-Mitarbeiter/Druckvorstufen-Mitarbeiterin · FR opérateur de prépresse/opératrice de prépresse
scanning operator · DE Scanner-Operator/Scanner-Operatorin · FR opérateur de numérisation/opératrice de numérisation
typesetter · DE Schriftsetzer/Schriftsetzerin · FR typographe

Closest UK occupation groups (SOC 2020)

Pre-press technicians (5421)3,700 employed
Printers (5422)18,000 employed
Printing machine assistants (8135)5,800 employed

Employment is the UK Annual Population Survey for April 2025 to March 2026, all workers in the group, which can be broader than this one occupation.

Pay across Europe, for the whole group

Median annual earnings of all employees in “Craft and related trades workers”. This is the broad ISCO group this occupation falls in, not the occupation itself, so treat it as context for the wage level, not as a salary for this job.

Median annual earnings, Craft and related trades workers, by country
Country	Median pay
Belgium	€40,086
Germany	€38,638
Austria	€38,194
Sweden	€37,856
Netherlands	€37,077
Ireland	€36,098
France	€27,145
Italy	€26,488
Spain	€22,817
Portugal	€11,142
Poland	€10,099

Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey, businesses with ten or more employees outside public administration, in euro and not adjusted for the cost of living. Reference years differ between sources: the US, Japan and Europe figures on this page come from different survey years, so compare them as rough levels, not to the euro or yen.

Exposure to AI

This occupation sits in the middle third of the 774 occupations scored, with an exposure score of -0.52. The scores are standardized across those occupations, so 0 is the average and a score of 1 is about one standard deviation above it.

Our note on reading it: the dataset links AI applications to the abilities that occupations require, so the score reflects overlap between the two. It is a comparison between occupations, not a forecast about jobs. It does not say whether exposure means tasks are replaced or workers get more done with the tools, and it says little about one employer or one role.

Source: Felten, E., Raj, M., & Seamans, R. (2021). Occupational, industry, and geographic exposure to artificial intelligence: A novel dataset and its potential uses. Strategic Management Journal, 42(12), 2195-2217. Matched to this page by 6-digit SOC code (43-9071).

Is it a fit for you?

Interest is one input, alongside ability, pay and what is hiring near you. The career interests test takes about thirteen minutes and ranks occupations by how closely their profile matches yours.

Take the career interests test