Bookkeeping jobs in 2026: where the work is and what it pays

If you searched “bookkeeping jobs”, you probably wanted a list of openings. This is not that, and we would rather say so up front than pad a page with listings that are stale by Friday. What it does instead is answer the questions a list cannot: how many bookkeeping jobs there actually are in the US, the UK and Australia, who employs bookkeepers, what the work pays according to the official statisticians, and what the next ten years look like.

The short answer: bookkeeping is a large occupation whose headcount is flat to falling, where most openings come from people retiring or moving on rather than from growth. That makes it a better job market than the projections sound, if you know where to look. Every figure below links to its source and is as at September 2026.

	United States	United Kingdom	Australia
How many	1,532,400 jobs (2025)	About 272,000 employee jobs (indicative)	91,800 employed (Feb 2026)
Typical pay	US$50,670 median a year (May 2025)	£31,560 median full-time a year (2025, provisional)	A$1,400 median full-time a week (May 2025)
Outlook	Down 6% to 2035, but about 144,100 openings a year	No official projection used here	Up 5.9% to May 2035
Source	BLS	ONS ASHE (SOC 4122)	Jobs and Skills Australia (ABS data)

One caution before comparing columns: each country counts a slightly different group. The US figure covers bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks. The UK figure covers book-keepers, payroll managers and wages clerks. Australia’s covers bookkeepers alone. Read across the rows for direction, not to rank countries.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 1,532,400 bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerk jobs in 2025, and projects that number to fall 6% by 2035 as software automates the transactional work. That sounds like a bad bet until you read the next line: BLS still expects about 144,100 openings a year over the decade, and says all of them come from replacing people who move to other occupations or leave the workforce, for example to retire.

So the jobs are real, they are just not new. Median pay was US$50,670 a year in May 2025, or US$24.36 an hour. The spread is wide. BLS wage data for the same month puts the 10th percentile at US$36,000 and the 90th at US$74,550, with the middle half between US$43,520 and US$61,470.

Where the US jobs are

• By industry: the single biggest employer is accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll services (98,500 jobs), followed by management of companies (71,290), local government (63,840), real estate (50,020) and schools (40,550).
• By state: California (151,870), Texas (122,400), Florida (88,670), New York (84,280) and Illinois (51,470) employ the most.
• By pay: the highest average annual wages are in the District of Columbia (US$67,650), Connecticut (US$61,690), California (US$60,830) and Massachusetts (US$60,460).

BLS says most bookkeeping clerks work full time, and that bookkeepers who work for several businesses may visit clients on site. It also notes the typical entry route is some college plus on-the-job training.

The UK’s best source is the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. For occupation 4122 (book-keepers, payroll managers and wages clerks), the 2025 provisional figures put median gross pay for full-time employees at £31,560 a year, up 5.2% on the year. Across all employees, including part-timers, the median was £27,743. For context, the full-time median across every UK occupation was £39,039.

ONS counts about 272,000 employee jobs in the group, 94,000 of them part-time, but warns its job counts are indicative only, and the annual figures only include people who have been in the same job for more than a year. They also leave out the self-employed, which matters for any bookkeeper who runs their own practice.

The government’s National Careers Service gives a narrower bookkeeper-only range of £24,000 for a starter to £35,000 experienced, on 37 to 40 hours a week, typically weekdays.

Jobs and Skills Australia, using ABS data, counts 91,800 people employed as bookkeepers in February 2026. The profile of the workforce is striking:

• 60% work part-time, against a US norm of full-time work.
• 89% are women.
• The median age is 52, against 39 across all jobs.
• Median full-time earnings were A$1,400 a week in May 2025, compared with A$1,852 for all occupations.
• New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland hold most of the jobs, in that order.

JSA’s projections have bookkeeper employment growing from 88,300 in May 2025 to 93,500 in May 2035, up 5.9%. Its 2025 Occupation Shortage List rates bookkeepers as not in shortage nationally or in any state. Put the median age next to that rating and the likely story is the American one: steady replacement hiring as an older workforce retires, not a scramble for talent. That is our reading of the data, not a JSA forecast.

None of the three statistical agencies publishes a remote-work share for bookkeepers, so any precise figure you see online is someone’s estimate. What the data does show is structural. Cloud ledgers mean the books no longer live in one office, and in the US the largest single employer is accounting and bookkeeping firms, which by design work on many clients’ books at once. Our read: the likelier route to remote work is a firm or your own practice, not an in-house role in a local government office or a school.

Be careful with “remote bookkeeping job” ads that ask you to pay for training or software before you start. Running your own practice also carries rules: in Australia you need TPB registration to provide BAS services for a fee, and in the UK you need anti-money laundering supervision to offer bookkeeping services at all.

The official data says how wide the range is, not why. The pattern in these numbers is still useful. Pay varies by more than US$38,000 between the 10th and 90th percentile in the US, some states pay well above others (DC, Connecticut, California), and the occupation is being hollowed out at the transactional end by software. That points to three things within your control:

1. Move from entry to review. As we set out in what a bookkeeper actually does in 2026, automation took the keying. The work that remains is checking what the software did, running payroll and sales-tax compliance, and closing the month properly.
2. Get the credential your country treats as a gate. In Australia that is BAS agent registration, in the UK a professional body membership with a practice licence, in the US an independent credential such as AIPB’s Certified Bookkeeper. Our bookkeeping certification guide sets out each one.
3. Get genuinely good with AI tools, because the job that is left is supervising automation, not competing with it. Our AI for accountants and bookkeepers hub is the practical starting point.

These medians are a useful sanity check on the salary you offer, and they come from the statisticians, not from job ads. Two things stand out. In Australia, 60% of bookkeepers work part-time, so a role offered only as full-time is fishing in the smaller pool. And in all three countries, most openings come from replacement, so expect to be competing with other employers backfilling retirements at the same time. For the wider hiring picture, see our accounting careers guide.

Are bookkeepers still in demand in 2026?

Yes, but through replacement, not growth. BLS projects US employment to fall 6% by 2035 yet still expects about 144,100 openings a year, all from people leaving the occupation. Australia’s projection is modest growth of 5.9% to 2035, and JSA does not rate bookkeepers as a shortage occupation.

How much do bookkeepers earn?

The official medians are US$50,670 a year in the US (May 2025), £31,560 a year for full-time UK employees in the wider book-keepers, payroll managers and wages clerks group (2025 provisional), and A$1,400 a week full-time in Australia (May 2025).

Which industries hire the most bookkeepers?

In the US, accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll services firms employ the most, followed by head offices of companies, local government and real estate. In Australia, JSA’s census-based profile also puts professional, scientific and technical services first, with construction second.

Do I need a qualification to get a bookkeeping job?

Not by law for an employed role in any of the three countries, as far as we could find, and BLS says US certification is not usually required. Where a credential becomes a legal gate is running your own practice: TPB registration for BAS services in Australia, AML supervision in the UK.

Why doesn’t this page list bookkeeping jobs?

Because a list goes out of date within days, and the most useful thing we can add is the context a listing leaves out: where the jobs are, what the market pays, and what the next decade looks like. Use it to judge the listings you find elsewhere.