Tellers
Receive and pay out money. Keep records of money and negotiable instruments involved in a financial institution's various transactions.
Most important skills
- Active Listening
- Speaking
- Reading Comprehension
- Critical Thinking
- Monitoring
- Social Perceptiveness
- Service Orientation
- Writing
Key knowledge
- Customer and Personal Service
- English Language
- Mathematics
- Economics and Accounting
- Public Safety and Security
- Administration and Management
- Administrative
- Sales and Marketing
What the work involves
- Balance currency, coin, and checks in cash drawers at ends of shifts and calculate daily transactions, using computers, calculators, or adding machines.
- Cash checks and pay out money after verifying that signatures are correct, that written and numerical amounts agree, and that accounts have sufficient funds.
- Receive checks and cash for deposit, verify amounts, and check accuracy of deposit slips.
- Examine checks for endorsements and to verify other information, such as dates, bank names, identification of the persons receiving payments, and the legality of the documents.
- Enter customers' transactions into computers to record transactions and issue computer-generated receipts.
- Count currency, coins, and checks received, by hand or using currency-counting machine, to prepare them for deposit or shipment to branch banks or the Federal Reserve Bank.
- Identify transaction mistakes when debits and credits do not balance.
- Prepare and verify cashier's checks.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Conventional, Enterprising, Social.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) (73% of respondents)
- Related experience
- None (48.3%)
- On-the-job training
- Anything beyond short demonstration, up to and including 1 month (68.4%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 2: Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for Tellers is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
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 · 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 96% of occupations compared | 96% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | High | Higher on dealing with the public than 75% of occupations compared | 65% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Teamwork | High | Higher on teamwork than 74% of occupations compared | 72% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | Very low | Lower on freedom to make decisions than 82% of occupations compared | 54% of surveyed respondents chose “Some freedom” |
| Time pressure | Low | Lower on time pressure than 73% of occupations compared | 33% of surveyed respondents chose “Every day” |
| Conflict situations | Very high | Higher on conflict situations than 80% of occupations compared | 31% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a week or more but not every day” |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | Very high | Higher on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 92% of occupations compared | 38% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a month or more but not every week” |
| Consequence of error | High | Higher on consequence of error than 60% of occupations compared | 26% of surveyed respondents chose “Very serious” |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: low
- Conflict situations: very high
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: very high
- Consequence of error: high
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: 0%
- Contact with others most of the time: 3.75%
- Constant contact with others: 96.25%
n = 24, Incumbent 08/2018
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 10.74%
- Fairly important: 13.38%
- Important: 0%
- Very important: 11.06%
- Extremely important: 64.82%
n = 23, Incumbent 08/2018
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 0%
- Important: 18.96%
- Very important: 8.86%
- Extremely important: 72.19%
n = 24, Incumbent 08/2018
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 1.54%
- Very little freedom: 10.97%
- Limited freedom: 20.2%
- Some freedom: 53.65%
- A lot of freedom: 13.63%
n = 24, Incumbent 08/2018
Time pressure
- Never: 0.87%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 29.19%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 19.38%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 17.43%
- Every day: 33.13%
n = 24, Incumbent 08/2018
Conflict situations
- Never: 10.53%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 17.29%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 19.3%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 31.48%
- Every day: 21.4%
n = 24, Incumbent 08/2018
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 0%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 4.48%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 38.33%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 19.29%
- Every day: 37.9%
n = 24, Incumbent 08/2018
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 13.83%
- Fairly serious: 19.89%
- Serious: 19.88%
- Very serious: 25.6%
- Extremely serious: 20.8%
n = 23, Incumbent 08/2018
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O*NET-SOC 43-3071.00 · SOC 43-3071 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8