Broker Assistant Career Information, Training, and Job Opportunities

Stock brokers and investment bankers are the rock stars of the securities industry, but they cannot perform their jobs without the help of a broker assistant. There are tens of thousands of jobs for broker assistants just in the United States.

The United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics has the term “brokerage clerk” to classify broker assistant into a job category. According to 2008 statistics compiled and published by that agency, there were 67,600 brokerage clerks. These broker-assistant positions are expected to decline around 3% from that figure by 2018. This means that an increasingly higher degree of education may be necessary to secure a job and build a career as a broker assistant.

In that same study, the median salary of broker assistants was $38,710. The mean average is a bit higher because there are some high-paying positions for the most coveted brokerage clerk/assistant positions.

The place you live is also relevant to whether you can find jobs as a broker assistant. Many small offices do not have an assistant, so you need to go where the big companies are to increase your chances of a career as a broker assistant, For example, of the jobs tracked in 2010, a full 11,000 of them were in New York, the clear hotbed of the securities market.

Another 4000 jobs for brokerage clerks are in neighboring New Jersey, which forms part of the greater NYC metropolitan area. Even nearby Connecticut has 1000 of these jobs. Thus, living in the Northeast and around New York City is going to improve your chances of having a broker-assistant career. Even Boston is one of the bigger places to find brokerage-clerk jobs. However, there is a decent market for assistants in the Chicago area, as well. California has 3000 or so positions scattered throughout the state. Other states tend to have only a few hundred jobs for these broker clerks.

In terms of education, there really are no specific requirements to become a clerk or brokerage assistant. However, with jobs on the decline, it is best to have a bachelor’s degree, particularly one of the social sciences. Good examples of college degree programs that are good for this career are bookkeeping and accounting. Other majors related to banking and finance could also set you apart from the increasingly stiff competition faced by aspiring broker assistants.

Resources:

Bureau of Labor Statistics: Brokerage Clerks

BLS: 2010 Employment Data for the Career of Brokerage Clerk


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