Secretaries and administrative assistants held about 3.9 million jobs in 2000, ranking among the largest occupations in the U.S. economy. The following tabulation shows the distribution of employment by secretarial specialty.
Secretaries, except legal, medical, and executive - 1,864,000
Executive secretaries and administrative assistants - 1,445,000
Medical secretaries - 314,000
Legal secretaries - 279,000
Secretaries and administrative assistants are employed in organizations of every type. Almost 3 out of 5 secretaries and administrative assistants are employed in firms providing services, ranging from education and health to legal and business services. Others work for firms engaged in manufacturing, construction, wholesale and retail trade, transportation, and communications. Banks, insurance companies, investment firms, and real estate firms are also important employers, as are Federal, State, and local government agencies.
Overall, employment of secretaries and administrative assistants is expected to grow more slowly than the average for all occupations over the 2000-10 period. In addition to openings due to growth, numerous job openings will result from the need to replace workers who transfer to other occupations or leave this very large occupation for other reasons each year. Opportunities should be best for well-qualified and experienced secretaries.
Projected employment of secretaries will vary by occupational specialty. Employment growth in the health and legal services industries should lead to average growth for medical and legal secretaries. Employment of executive secretaries and administrative assistants also is projected to grow about as fast as the average for all occupations. Fast growing industries-such as personnel supply, computer and data processing services, health and legal services education, and engineering and management-will continue to generate most new job opportunities. A decline in employment is expected for all other secretaries except legal, medical, or executive. They account for almost half of all secretaries and administrative assistants.
Growing levels of office automation and organizational restructuring will continue to make secretaries and administrative assistants more productive in coming years. Personal computers, electronic mail, scanners, and voice message systems will allow secretaries to accomplish more in the same amount of time. The use of automated equipment is also changing the distribution of work in many offices. In some cases, such traditional secretarial duties as keyboarding, filing, photocopying, and bookkeeping are being assigned to workers in other units or departments. Professionals and managers increasingly do their own word processing and data entry; and handle much of their own correspondence rather than submit the work to secretaries and other support staff. Also, in some law offices and physicians' offices, paralegals and medical assistants are assuming some tasks formerly done by secretaries. As other workers assume more of these duties, there is a trend in many offices for professionals and managers to "share" secretaries and administrative assistants. The traditional arrangement of one secretary per manager is becoming less prevalent; instead, secretaries and administrative assistants increasingly support systems, departments, or units. This approach often means secretaries and administrative assistants assume added responsibilities and are seen as valuable members of a team, but it also contributes to the decline in employment projected for overall numbers of secretaries and administrative assistants.
Developments in office technology are certain to continue, and they will bring about further changes in the secretary's and administrative assistant's work environment. However, many secretarial and administrative duties are of a personal, interactive nature and, therefore, not easily automated. Responsibilities such as planning conferences, working with clients, and transmitting staff instructions require tact and communication skills. Because technology cannot substitute for these personal skills, secretaries and administrative assistants will continue to play a key role in most organizations.
Data entry and information processing professionals held about 806,000 jobs in 2000 and were employed in every sector of the economy; 509,000 were data entry keyers and 297,000 were word processors and typists. Some workers telecommute by working from their homes on personal computers linked by telephone lines to those in the main office. This enables them to type material at home while still being able to produce printed copy in their offices.
About 1 out of 3 data entry and information processing workers held jobs in firms providing business services, including temporary help, word processing, and computer and data processing. Nearly 1 out of 5 worked in Federal, State, and local government agencies.
Overall employment of data entry and information processing workers is projected to decline through 2010. Nevertheless, the need to replace those who transfer to other occupations or leave this large occupation for other reasons will produce numerous job openings each year. Job prospects will be most favorable for those with the best technical skills-in particular, expertise in appropriate computer software applications. Data entry and information processing workers must be willing to continuously upgrade their skills to remain marketable.
Although data entry and information processing workers are all affected by productivity gains stemming from organizational restructuring and the implementation of new technologies, projected growth differs among these workers. Employment of word processors and typists is expected to decline due to the proliferation of personal computers which allows other workers to perform duties formerly assigned to word processors and typists. Most professionals and managers, for example, now use desktop personal computers to do their own word processing. Because technologies affecting data entry keyers tend to be costlier to implement, however, these workers will be less affected by technology and should experience slower than average growth.
Employment growth of data entry keyers will still be dampened by productivity gains, as various data capturing technologies, such as bar code scanners, voice recognition technologies, and sophisticated character recognition readers, become more prevalent. These technologies can be applied to a variety of business transactions, such as inventory tracking, invoicing, and order placement. Moreover, as telecommunications technology improves, many organizations will increasingly take advantage of computer networks that allow data to be transmitted electronically, thereby avoiding the reentry of data. These technologies will allow more data to be entered automatically into computers, reducing the demand for data entry keyers.
In addition to technology, employment of data entry and information processing workers will be adversely affected as businesses increasingly contract out their work. Many organizations have reduced or even eliminated permanent in-house staff, for example, in favor of temporary-help and staffing services firms. Some large data entry and information processing firms increasingly employ workers in nations with low wages to enter data. As international trade barriers continue to fall and telecommunications technology improves, this transfer will mean reduced demand for data entry keyers in the United States.
