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Role hub · Purchasing Managers

Purchasing Manager: what the job is, what it pays, and how to get hired.

The work, the skills that matter, the tools in demand and the pay range, from U.S. government data, plus every TryHired page for the role.

Maid DizdarevicCareer coach · 8x LinkedIn Top Voice
Updated Nov 2, 2026 · Data: BLS OEWS May 2025 · O*NET 31.0
Pay ladder · select a percentile
Median percentile pay

Half of purchasing managers earn more than this and half earn less.

Annual
$148,080
Hourly
$71.19
Source
BLS May 2025
Quick answer

Purchasing Managers plan, direct, or coordinate the activities of buyers, purchasing officers, and related workers involved in purchasing materials, products, and services. The median pay is $148,080 a year ($71.19 an hour) (BLS, May 2025). The most commonly reported education requirement is a bachelor's degree (53% of workers surveyed by O*NET).

Median pay
$148,080
BLS May 2025
Employed in the U.S.
84,320
BLS May 2025
Preparation
Job Zone 4 of 5
considerable preparation
Most common education
Bachelor's Degree
53% of workers
Key facts

Purchasing Managers at a glance

  • Purchasing managers in the United States earned a median annual wage of $148,080 in May 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025

  • In its 2025–35 employment projections, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a bachelor's degree as the typical entry-level education for purchasing managers in the United States.

    Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35

  • BLS projects employment of purchasing managers in the United States to grow 4.0% from 2025 to 2035, with about 6,400 openings a year on average, including replacement openings.

    Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35

  • BLS estimates that 26.4% of purchasing managers in the United States had the ability to telework in 2025, a preliminary estimate of whether the job allows it, not a count of remote jobs.

    Source: BLS Occupational Requirements Survey, 2025 preliminary

Explore the role

Every page for Purchasing Managers

SalaryPurchasing Manager salary

Pay by percentile, state and metro, with a negotiation script.

Open →ResumePurchasing Manager resume

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Open →Interview questionsPurchasing Manager interview questions

Questions with what they test, plus practice mode.

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The work

What purchasing managers do day to day

Data Core tasks rated most important by workers in the role (O*NET).

  1. Develop and implement purchasing and contract management instructions, policies, and procedures.
  2. Locate vendors of materials, equipment or supplies, and interview them to determine product availability and terms of sales.
  3. Prepare bid awards requiring board approval.
  4. Direct and coordinate activities of personnel engaged in buying, selling, and distributing materials, equipment, machinery, and supplies.
  5. Review purchase order claims and contracts for conformance to company policy.
  6. Review, evaluate, and approve specifications for issuing and awarding bids.
  7. Administer online purchasing systems.
  8. Prepare and process requisitions and purchase orders for supplies and equipment.
Job requirements

What the job requires

Data BLS figures for purchasing managers (SOC 11-3061), 2025 preliminary BLS Occupational Requirements Survey.

Telework available
26.4%
of workers had the ability to telework
Workday sitting
84.1%
mean share of the day required to sit
Most common strength level
Sedentary
80.5% of workers
Can pause work
more than 99.5%
of workers could take short, unscheduled breaks
Self-paced workload
80.1%
of workers set their own workload
Employer-changed schedules
11.5%
of workers had schedules changed by the employer week to week

On TryHired lists: Remote careers · Desk jobs.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Requirements Survey. Estimates are preliminary; ranges are shown as published.

Where this career works

Industries that employ it

Data Share of all purchasing manager jobs in each industry, 2025 (BLS Employment Matrix).

  1. Management of companies and enterprises17.6% of all jobs in this occupation · +4.6% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $178,770
  2. Government, excluding state and local education and hospitals12.4% of all jobs in this occupation · -2.0% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $146,420
  3. Professional, scientific, and technical services8.3% of all jobs in this occupation · +12.2% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $173,450
  4. Merchant wholesalers, durable goods5.8% of all jobs in this occupation · +4.7% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $147,870
  5. Transportation equipment manufacturing5.1% of all jobs in this occupation · +4.0% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $152,310
  6. Merchant wholesalers, nondurable goods5.0% of all jobs in this occupation · +3.4% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $155,990

Sources: BLS 2025–35 National Employment Matrix (share of the occupation's jobs, projected change) and BLS OEWS May 2025 industry estimates (mean wage). Different industry estimates are not a pay forecast for any person.

Skills that matter

Ranked by importance to the job

Data O*NET importance ratings. The first three are core.

Management of Personnel ResourcescoreActive ListeningcoreSpeakingcoreSocial PerceptivenessNegotiationTime ManagementReading ComprehensionWritingMonitoring

Knowledge areas: Administration and Management, Customer and Personal Service, English Language, Law and Government, Economics and Accounting, Computers and Electronics.

Tools and technology

Software purchasing managers use

Data Examples reported for the role; employer demand flags from O*NET.

  • Purchasing softwareProcurement softwareIn demand
  • Microsoft VisioProcess mapping and design softwareHot technology
  • Automated purchase order softwareProcurement software
  • Bottomline Technologies Bottomline Sprinter Purchasing ManagerProcurement software
  • Infor Lawson Supply Chain ManagementMaterials requirements planning logistics and supply chain software
  • Materials requirement planning MRP softwareMaterials requirements planning logistics and supply chain software
  • Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise Financial Management SolutionsFinancial analysis software
  • PurchasingNet eProcurementProcurement software
  • SAP AribaProcurement software
  • SAP BusinessObjects Crystal ReportsData base reporting software
  • Microsoft ExcelSpreadsheet softwareIn demand
  • Microsoft Office softwareOffice suite softwareIn demand

Also called: Category Purchasing Manager, Commodity Manager, Materials Director, Materials Manager, Procurement Director, Procurement Manager.

Method

How this page is built

Tasks, skills, tools, education and related roles come from O*NET 31.0. Pay and employment come from the BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates. The skill-match score is our calculation: Skill match is the cosine similarity of the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level and subtract the average across all occupations, then compare the direction of the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 means unrelated or opposite (negative values are shown as 0). Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared.

What this page can't tell you
  • How a specific employer defines the job.
  • Pay for self-employed workers (OEWS covers employees).
  • Your own chances: data describes the occupation, not you.
Sources
  1. O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).

How TryHired builds this data: sources, methods and downloads. Spotted an error? Report a correction.