Clerk, the vocational title, commonly refers to a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks; it overlaps with retail clerks who perform similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. It is also occasionally used to refer to third-year medical students completing a medical clerkship. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service counters and other administrative tasks. In British English, the pronunciation is different: in most dialects outside North America, but in North American dialects.

Ein Kontorist (weibliche Form: Kontoristin) ist ein vor allem in der Schweiz gebräuchlicher Begriff für einen Angestellten, welcher einfachere Büro- und Verwaltungsarbeiten wie Registraturarbeiten, Karteiführung, Schreiben von Adressen in einem kaufmännischen Betrieb erledigt.