Loan Officers
Evaluate, authorize, or recommend approval of commercial, real estate, or credit loans. Advise borrowers on financial status and payment methods. Includes mortgage loan officers and agents, collection analysts, loan servicing officers, loan underwriters, and payday loan officers.
Most important skills
- Active Listening
- Speaking
- Reading Comprehension
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Critical Thinking
- Writing
- Mathematics
- Social Perceptiveness
Key knowledge
- Customer and Personal Service
- Economics and Accounting
- English Language
- Mathematics
- Sales and Marketing
- Law and Government
- Administration and Management
- Education and Training
What the work involves
- Assist in selection of financial award candidates using electronic databases to certify loan eligibility.
- Authorize or sign mail collection letters.
- Calculate amount of debt and funds available to plan methods of payoff and to estimate time for debt liquidation.
- Confer with underwriters to resolve mortgage application problems.
- Contact applicants or creditors to resolve questions about applications or to assist with completion of paperwork.
- Contact borrowers with delinquent accounts to obtain payment in full or to negotiate repayment plans.
- Counsel clients on personal and family financial problems, such as excessive spending or borrowing of funds.
- Establish payment priorities according to credit terms and interest rates to reduce clients' overall costs.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Conventional, Enterprising, Social.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- Bachelor's Degree (68.7% of respondents)
- Related experience
- Over 4 years, up to and including 6 years (40.5%)
- On-the-job training
- Over 6 months, up to and including 1 year (32.4%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 4: Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Depends on state or role (national summary): Mortgage loan officers must hold a Mortgage Loan Originator (MLO) license (prelicensing courses, national exam, background and credit checks, annual renewal); states may add requirements. source (checked 2026-10-25)
Limits
- Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
- Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections; State licensing authorities (curated, see evidence links) · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0
Work environment
How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).
Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.
| Condition | Level | Compared with other occupations | Most common answer (O*NET survey) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with others | Very high | Higher on contact with others than 87% of occupations compared | 84% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | Very high | Higher on dealing with the public than 92% of occupations compared | 66% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Teamwork | High | Higher on teamwork than 74% of occupations compared | 68% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | High | Higher on freedom to make decisions than 76% of occupations compared | 49% of surveyed respondents chose “A lot of freedom” |
| Time pressure | High | Higher on time pressure than 71% of occupations compared | 45% of surveyed respondents chose “Every day” |
| Conflict situations | High | Higher on conflict situations than 73% of occupations compared | 45% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a week or more but not every day” |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | High | Higher on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 76% of occupations compared | 38% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a week or more but not every day” |
| Consequence of error | Moderate | Higher on consequence of error than 52% of occupations compared | 35% of surveyed respondents chose “Serious” |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: high
- Conflict situations: high
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: high
- Consequence of error: moderate
Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.
Full answer distributions
Contact with others
- No contact with others: 0%
- Occasional contact with others: 0%
- Contact with others about half the time: 1.07%
- Contact with others most of the time: 15.25%
- Constant contact with others: 83.68%
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2020
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 1.07%
- Important: 9.57%
- Very important: 23.13%
- Extremely important: 66.23%
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2020
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 1.07%
- Important: 12.5%
- Very important: 18.34%
- Extremely important: 68.09%
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2020
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 0%
- Very little freedom: 0%
- Limited freedom: 5.72%
- Some freedom: 45.3%
- A lot of freedom: 48.98%
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2020
Time pressure
- Never: 0%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 0%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 33.04%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 21.59%
- Every day: 45.37%
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2020
Conflict situations
- Never: 1.07%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 32.37%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 17.37%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 45.32%
- Every day: 3.87%
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2020
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 0%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 32.22%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 16.81%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 37.71%
- Every day: 13.26%
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2020
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 6.6%
- Fairly serious: 27.66%
- Serious: 34.74%
- Very serious: 20.14%
- Extremely serious: 10.86%
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2020
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O*NET-SOC 13-2072.00 · SOC 13-2072 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8