Jobs / Management and business operations / 13-1023.00
Purchasing Agents, Except Wholesale, Retail, and Farm Products
Purchase machinery, equipment, tools, parts, supplies, or services necessary for the operation of an establishment. Purchase raw or semifinished materials for manufacturing. May negotiate contracts.
- US jobs
- Not reported by BLS
- Job family
- Management and business operations
Can agents do the work of purchasing agents, except wholesale, retail, and farm products?
We read the evidence at the level of the job family, Management and business operations:
- Task levelPartialOnly adjacent evidence. On TheAgentCompany, which gives agents workplace tasks inside a simulated software company, the best agent resolves 42.9% of tasks (a November 2025 result). No task-level benchmark in our collection maps directly to management or business operations.
- Project levelPartialMixed. OpenAI reports that GPT-5.5's GDPval deliverables won or tied against professionals' work in 84.9% of comparisons, and the best agent passes 73.5% of APEX-Agents tasks on the first try. Running a business is weaker: on Vending-Bench 2 the best model ends a simulated year with $15,515, about a quarter of Andon Labs' estimate for a good strategy.
Benchmarks for this occupation
Benchmarks for the job family
These cover work in management and business operations, not always this occupation's tasks.
- 1846 EloClaude Opus 5.5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort, Default Fallback) · 23 Sep 2026Unrated
- 42.9%TTE-MatrixAgent + DeepSeek-V3.2 · 10 Nov 2025Emerging
Typical tasks
From O*NET 31.0. Core tasks first. Few of these tasks have a benchmark today.
- Monitor and follow applicable laws and regulations.
- Purchase the highest quality merchandise at the lowest possible price and in correct amounts.
- Formulate policies and procedures for bid proposals and procurement of goods and services.
- Prepare purchase orders, solicit bid proposals, and review requisitions for goods and services.
- Write and review product specifications, maintaining a working technical knowledge of the goods or services to be purchased.
- Analyze price proposals, financial reports, and other data and information to determine reasonable prices.
- Hire, train, or supervise purchasing clerks, buyers, and expediters.
- Research and evaluate suppliers, based on price, quality, selection, service, support, availability, reliability, production and distribution capabilities, and the supplier's reputation and history.
- Evaluate and monitor contract performance to ensure compliance with contractual obligations and to determine need for changes.
- Negotiate, renegotiate, and administer contracts with suppliers, vendors, and other representatives.
- Study sales records and inventory levels of current stock to develop strategic purchasing programs that facilitate employee access to supplies.
- Confer with staff, users, and vendors to discuss defective or unacceptable goods or services and determine corrective action.
Other job titles for this occupation (39)
Buyer · Contract Administrator (Contract Admin) · Procurement and Contracting Administrator (Procurement and Contracting Admin) · Procurement and Contracting Buyer · Procurement Official · Procurement Specialist · Purchasing Administrator (Purchasing Admin) · Purchasing Agent · Purchasing and Contracts Coordinator · Contract Analyst · Contract Specialist · Contractor Buyer · Contracts Manager · Equipment, Supplies, and Tools Purchasing Agent · Fuel Agent · Fuel Buyer · General Purchasing Agent · Log Buyer · Lumber Buyer · Media Buyer · Ore Buyer · Price Analyst · Print Buyer · Procurement Agent · Procurement Analyst · Procurement Coordinator · Procurement Engineer · Pulpwood Buyer · Pulpwood Contractor · Purchaser · Purchasing Coordinator · Purchasing Specialist · Railroad Purchasing Agent · Replenishment Buyer · Sourcing Specialist · Subcontract Administrator (Subcontract Admin) · Subcontract Associate · Timber Buyer · Tools, Supplies, and Equipment Purchasing Agent