Payroll/Wages clerk
AI Exposure Rank
91/100
Range 81–98/100 across source-weight sensitivity checks
Payroll/Wages clerk has an AI Exposure Rank of 91/100, meaning its work is more exposed to current AI capabilities than approximately 91% of Singapore occupations. The evidence currently points to workflow redesign; this is a relative rank, not a probability of job loss.
Clerical Support Workers·SGD 4,256/mo (3,000–5,950)·~2.6K workers in SG·Updated 2026-07-17
Relative AI exposure, not a prediction of job loss. Hiring, wages and role design depend on many forces this rank does not forecast.
How This Rank Is Built
The source percentiles are combined using the displayed reliability weights, then ranked against all 562 Singapore occupations. This is not a percentage of tasks and not a job-loss probability.
Likely job pathway
Workflow redesign
Current demand context
Mixed current demand
Pathway and demand are reported beside the exposure rank. Current demand does not change the rank.
The evidence behind this occupation's AI exposure, with human-work and demand context shown separately. How this works
Tasks AI can handle
With 87% AI task overlap (based on Felten AIOE, Anthropic Economic Index, and ILO occupational exposure), the Payroll/Wages clerk tasks most exposed include: data entry, invoice processing, appointment scheduling, document filing, and standard correspondence drafting.
- • Provide information to employees and managers on payroll matters, tax issues, benefit plans, and collective agreement provisions.
- • Verify attendance, hours worked, and pay adjustments, and post information onto designated records.
- • Process and issue employee paychecks and statements of earnings and deductions.
O*NET tasks for this occupation with the most observed Claude usage (Anthropic task data).
What AI can't do here
At 8% human bottleneck protection, the tasks that remain hardest to automate for Payroll/Wages clerk include: exception handling for non-standard requests, institutional knowledge of internal processes, coordinating across departments, and managing sensitive information.
Main insulation channels: Non-routine work + High-stakes decisions — the work-context dimensions behind this occupation's human bottleneck.
Skills to focus on
Sources: Felten AIOE (2021), Anthropic Economic Index (2026), ILO GenAI (2025), Pizzinelli et al. bottleneck model. Full methodology.
From exposure to employment
What could change the employment outcome?
AI capability is only the starting point. Adoption, task design, human oversight, demand, mobility and evidence quality determine how exposure may resolve in practice.
Workplace adoption
Leading sectors represented
Some listed industries have MOM sector adoption evidence; observed-sector average 62.7%.
Task structure
Task evidence available
100% weighted task match · 3% effective coverage
Human advantage
Coordination and judgment still matter
At 8% human bottleneck protection, the tasks that remain hardest to automate for Payroll/Wages clerk include: exception handling for non-standard requests, institutional knowledge of internal processes, coordinating across departments, and managing sensitive information.
Hiring and demand
3.2% vacancy rate · 2026 Q1
Clerical, sales and service vacancies recovered slightly from Q4 but remained well below a year earlier. Hiring turnover slowed, retrenchment incidence stayed low, and six-month re-entry improved. In 2025, this broad occupation group had 1.9% time-related underemployment and 12.1% non-permanent employment. Across the published male and female series, CPI-adjusted median income changed +0.1% to +3.9% from 2018 to 2023.
Career transitions
Material planning clerk
moderate modeled transition; outcomes still depend on skills, wages and openings.
Evidence strength
medium confidence
3 exposure sources · sensitivity 81–98/100 across source-weight sensitivity checks.
These lenses are reported separately and do not alter AI Exposure Rank. Labour-market figures describe a broad official occupation cluster, not this SSOC occupation alone.
Singapore Now
Current labour market conditions and how they affect this role.
Cooling, but not collapsing. Vacancies and re-entry are softer, yet retrenchment remains low and hiring still exceeds resignations.
Vacancy
3.2%
↓ 20.0% YoY
Hiring
2.1%
vs 1.4% resign
Retrenchment
0.7
per 1,000 · low
Re-entry
68%
find work in 12mo· -10.5pp
Clerical, Sales & Service Workers · 2026 Q1
Top Industries
Industry vacancy overlays use the latest published detailed cross-tab, which can lag the main labour monitor.
What You Can Do
Payroll/Wages clerk has some offset potential, but it depends on transition pathways holding up in practice and on workers clearing the main switching frictions.
Published transition support
Related roles you could transition to
Exposure-reducingHigher AI exposure, but comparatively credible exposure-reducing moves exist — the strongest scores 71% match. Escape-route quality and labour demand matter alongside exposure.
Compare within Clerical Support Workers
See how this compares to similar occupations
Compare with... →Classification
More exposed than approximately 90% of occupations · V8 AI Exposure Rank· Polytechnic / ITE Diploma
Raw scores
AIOE 1.040 · θ 0.597 · C-AIOE 0.924
Stability
stable · Optimistic 55% · Pessimistic 68%
Score range (best/worst case)
Exposure sensitivity 78–94% · Rank sensitivity 81–98/100 across source-weight sensitivity checks
Scoring basis
V8 AI Exposure Rank. A relative Singapore occupation index. It ranks AI task exposure; it is not a probability of job loss or a percentage of tasks.
Wage range (SGD/mo)
25th 3,000 · Median 4,256 · 75th 5,950
Evidence & sources
Data matching
direct · SSOC 43114
Real-world AI usage: +14% vs estimated
Data quality
medium evidence · 3 exposure sources · direct mapping
100% weighted task match · 3% effective coverage
AI overlap by data source
Weights: aioe 31% · anthropic 34% · ilo 35%
Conflicting data signals
Tools & offset factors
What helps
- Nearby moves and published transition support look reasonably strong.
What could slow it down
- Current demand support is thin, so offsets may take longer to show up.
Worker profile & local context
- Vacancy rate is 3.2% and rose by 0.1 points from last quarter.
- Hiring read: recruitment is running above resignation (2.1% vs 1.4%).
- Retrenchment was low at 0.7 per 1,000 employees.
- 68% of retrenched workers re-entered employment within 12 months.
- Employer pressure is moderate, based on 3 captured Singapore-relevant company signals through 2025-06-18.
Worker profile
Gender mix
37% male / 63% femalePublished Singapore worker composition for the detailed occupation family 43 Numerical & Material-Recording Clerks.
Employment structure
Employee-heavy99% employees, 1% employers or self-employed workers.
Work arrangement
Mostly full-time13% part-time and 87% full-time in 2025.
Age profile
Older-skewing16% aged 15 to 29, 35% aged 30 to 49, and 49% aged 50 or older.
Qualification mix
Mixed qualificationsSecondary 29%; Diploma / professional qualification 28%.
Gross wage by sex
Female median 20% higherPublished June 2024 gross wage medians: male $3,614, female $4,329.
Where this work is concentrated
Top planning areas
Jurong West, Tampines, Woodlands22% of workers in this occupation group live in these three planning areas.
Residential concentration
Moderately clustered35% live across the top five planning areas in the 2020 Census.
Commute pattern
Longer commutesEstimated average commute 39.7 minutes. 38% take 46 minutes or more.
Role profile
How this role's work breaks down across key dimensions. This is a general profile, not an individual measurement.
General role profile on a 0–100 scale. These are modelling inputs, not measurements of an individual job or worker.
How this changes by career stage
Career stage can change the task mix and human context. These directional profiles are illustrative, not occupation-level forecasts of hiring or displacement.
Frequently asked questions
Will AI replace Payroll/Wages clerk?
Payroll/Wages clerk has an AI Exposure Rank of 91/100, meaning its work is more exposed to current AI capabilities than approximately 91% of Singapore occupations. The evidence currently points to workflow redesign; this is a relative rank, not a probability of job loss. AI Exposure Rank: 91/100 (Very High). Median wage: SGD 4,256/month.
What is the AI exposure rank for Payroll/Wages clerk?
Payroll/Wages clerk has an AI Exposure Rank of 91/100, rated Very High. It ranks higher than approximately 91% of Singapore occupations for exposure to current AI capabilities; it is not a job-loss probability.
What career transitions are available for Payroll/Wages clerk?
Payroll/Wages clerk has modeled transition pathways to related occupations. The strongest adjacent pathway is Material planning clerk, based on skill and wage similarity (model-estimated). Transition scoring accounts for wage preservation, training ease, and destination quality.
How does Payroll/Wages clerk salary compare in the live market?
Payroll/Wages clerk earns a median gross wage of SGD 4,256/month in the live market (25th-75th percentile: SGD 3,000-5,950). This is 5% below median across all 562 scored occupations, and 33% above group median within Clerical Support Workers occupations.