Loan Officers

Moderate Risk
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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
4.1/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

50% (Moderate Risk)

Moderate Risk (41-60%): This occupation may be meaningfully affected by automation. Some parts of the role may be suitable for AI, software, or robotics, while others still rely on human skill, judgement, trust, or real-world context. People in this range may benefit from building skills that complement automation and reduce replacement risk.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Decision-making and problem solving

Very important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
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Communicating with people outside the organization

Very important
Why this matters
Represents the organization to customers, the public, or government—handling questions, concerns, and relationship-building through conversations, writing, calls, or email.
Jobs that also use this strength

Thinking creatively

Quite important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
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Social perceptiveness

Quite important
Why this matters
Noticing others’ emotions and reactions in the moment and adjusting what you say or do based on why they’re responding that way.
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Coordinating others’ work

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together, assigning tasks, and keeping a group aligned so work gets done.
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Show 2 more strengths

Consulting and advising others

Quite important
Why this matters
Provide guidance and expert advice to managers or teams on technical, system, or process decisions—explaining options, tradeoffs, and recommended actions.
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Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
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What users think

Based on 303 votes

62% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted that it's probable this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 50% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Loan Officers will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

High paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Loan Officers was $74,180 ($36 per hour).

The median annual wage for Loan Officers was 49.9% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Loan Officers' job openings is expected to rise 1.7% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 290,530 people employed as 'Loan Officers' within the United States.

This represents around 0.19% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 530 people are employed as 'Loan Officers'.

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What people are saying (15)

Leave a comment
Grant Zabielski
18 Feb 2024 00:34
Extremely likely. AI could do every task I do within a loan right now. Not in the future, right now. Every scenario can currently be programmed in with a flow chart. Once AI evolves to generative AI, it’s over. Scenarios won’t even have to be programmed in. AI will be a better loan officer than I have ever been and could ever be, and their customer service will be impeccable.
Parul (Highly likely)
08 Aug 2023 19:02
I think in this AI World. Mobiles and application loan are more easy to access or operate so thats why our executive filed is likely to be tougher
JY (Low)
30 Aug 2022 11:18
Due dilligence is needed, especially prevention of money laundering and terrorism.
jh
22 Dec 2023 19:51
that's what the fraud dept is for
Ed (Low)
05 Jul 2022 23:49
Not every loan is clear-cut. A computer can't figure it out.
Brian L
06 Jan 2022 21:06
There will be fewer and fewer loan officers until there won't be any. This process will take years, but there is no doubt that it is a declining role. The next generation of homebuyers doesn't care about working with a person; they prefer apps. Systems will streamline the process of application and verifications of income, deposit, and residence so that very little to nothing needs to be done by humans.
Chris
23 Apr 2021 17:35
Everyone talking about the social aspect of things in the comments as they all have a bias perception. Social interaction may be good for business (which I understand), but from the customer viewpoint, they just want the product and service going through the path of least resistance. No customer wants to socially interact. Robots will give the customer what they want, quicker and with less hassle. Be prepared to adapt.
MSTE (Highly likely)
01 Mar 2021 07:52
I design and develop loan origination and underwriting systems :)
G (No chance)
09 Jan 2021 19:10
There are way too many moving part the life of a loan. People prefer an advisor in such a complex process. Plus, the mortgage industry is a regulatory minefield. The mortgage technology companies that have cropped up in the past 20 years have face lawsuits and have gone out of business. However, technology skills will play an ever greater role in a loan officer's career. To put this career as highly at risk is unrealistic.
Brian (Highly likely)
21 Nov 2020 00:50
All you people who believe that mortgages are too complicated to have a robot doing it are in denial. Any logic that you can dream up can be programmed into a computer. As interest rates continue to decrease everyone in the process is having their margins squeezed. That means companies will look for cheaper ways to do things i.e. robots. Robots can handle way more volume than a human as well.
Paul George (Uncertain)
06 Feb 2020 15:17
Face to face interaction will always be wanted unless we are looking 100 years into the future where every ones perception of social interaction has been skewed due to social media.
Max (No chance)
19 Jan 2020 00:51
Not possible. No way for a robot to perform every aspect of the job. Evaluating the viability of a business plan and the likelihood of the applicants to deliver takes a human like myself.
Al C. (Uncertain)
26 Dec 2019 21:18
There is no way for a Mortgage Loan Officer to go away anytime soon. A Mortgage is to complicated to not have an actual person walk some one through the process from start to finish. Automation is great to bring in customers but not to complete the transaction together.
Joe (No chance)
10 Jul 2019 21:02
There is a large social aspect associated with the job. In addition, there are a lot of legal and other various parts of the job that are hard to automate.
Matt (No chance)
15 Apr 2019 12:21
There is no entry for a mortgage loan officer. Consumer loan officers like credit card or unsecured debt peddlers might be automated. In a lot of regards they already are. But if you're going to say that mortgage lending is going away just look at quicken mortgage. Their model is the future.
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Job description

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.

O*NET-SOC code: 13-2072.00