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- Office, accounting and support clerks: skills opportunities and challenges (2019 update)
Office, accounting and support clerks: skills opportunities and challenges (2019 update)
Summary
Office and accounting clerks are a composite group of occupations who mainly record, organise, store and retrieve information related to the office tasks in question. Other support clerks perform clerical duties in newspapers, courts, libraries and post offices.
Key facts
- Around 17 million people were employed as office, accounting and support clerks in 2018. Employment in the occupation decreased by 10 per cent between 2006 and 2018.
- Employment is projected to decrease by a further 13 per cent over the period 2018 to 2030 – a loss of more than 2 million jobs. However, substantial job demand is foreseen to replace those workers who will leave the occupation for one reason or another. It will result in more than 8 million vacated jobs between 2018 and 2030. This means that around 6 million job openings will need to be filled.
- In the workplace, using ICT, being autonomous and gathering and evaluating information are the most important tasks and skills of office, accounting and support clerks.
- Mirroring the public budget constraints, employment of office and accounting clerks is expected to fall especially in public administration and defence sector.
- Other support clerks are expected to suffer cut-downs in all sectors, most notably in wholesale and retail trade and administrative and support services.
- In all three occupations, most employees traditionally hold medium-level qualifications, while about a quarter are highly qualified. Between 2018 and 2030 demand for low and medium qualified workers is expected to decrease, balanced by a marked increase in the share of highly qualified workers (over a third in each sub-occupation).
Tasks and skills
Office and accounting clerks1 record, organise, store and retrieve information related to the office tasks in question. They compute financial, statistical, and other numerical data. Also, they may record production materials received, put into stock or issued; take charge of cash transactions related to business matters; compute quantities of the production materials required at specified dates; and help with the preparation and check of production operation schedules. They can also keep records of goods produced, purchased, stocked, dispatched, and of materials needed at specified production dates, or keep records of operational aspects and coordinate the timing of passenger and freight transport.
Other support clerks perform clerical duties in newspapers, courts, libraries and post offices. This could entail filing documents, preparing information for processing, maintaining personnel records, checking material for consistency with original source material and writing on behalf of illiterate persons.
According to Eurofound's Job Monitor, using ICT, being autonomous, gathering and evaluating information are the most important tasks and skills of office, accounting and support clerks.
Figure 1: Importance of tasks of office, accounting and support clerks
Note: The importance of tasks and skills is measured on 0-1 scale, where 0 means least important and 1 means most important.
What are the trends for the future? 2
The employment level of this occupation is expected to decrease by 13 per cent between 2018 and 2030 (-10% for office clerks, -11% for accounting clerks, -17% for other support clerks). It equals to employment decrease of more than 2 million jobs. The decline of employment of office clerks is expected in 17 of 28 analysed European countries while in remaining 11 - especially in South and Eastern Europe - are still expected to create new jobs for this occupation.
Figure 2: Future employment growth of office, accounting and support clerks in European countries (2018-2030, in %)
This decrease will, however, be more than equalized by need to replace workers who are projected to leave the occupation for one reason or another such as retirement. This “replacement demand” 3) will call for more than 8 million people. Given the projected decrease in employment over the same period, this will result in there being around 6 million job openings that will need to be filled between 2018 and 2030.
Figure 3: Future job openings of office, accounting and support clerks (2018-2030)
In all three sub-groups, most employees traditionally hold medium-level qualifications, while about a quarter are highly qualified. Between 2018 and 2030 demand for low and medium qualified workers is expected to decrease, balanced by a marked increase in the share of highly qualified workers (over a third in each sub-occupation).
Mirroring the public budget constraints, employment of these clerks is expected to fall by about 20% in the sub-occupation’s largest employer, public administration and defence. Mild increase in the demand is expected in legal, accounting and consulting (+5%) and education (+10%), two of the five most important employers.
As for accounting clerks in the next decade, they are expected to decrease by about 10% in wholesale and retail trade (their largest employer), while a decreasing trend is common across the majority of the subsectors.
Other support clerks are expected to suffer cut-downs in all sectors, most notably in wholesale and retail trade and administrative and support services.
More information on employment trends and characteristics of these occupations can be found here.
Which drivers of change will affect their skills?
The skills required for these clerks have changed considerably in recent years due to outsourcing, specialisation, technological change, and globalisation. These drivers are expected to continue reshaping job tasks and skills:
- Digitalisation, technological and communication changes substantially affect the service industries. Skills needs have evolved mainly due to communications technologies, software development, and access to information systems. In the future, the use of online services, software and applications that could speed up or alter tasks (e.g. stenography or document storage), and Web 2.0 (e.g. social networking) may increase the need for better customer support and direction skills, and for information and diagnostic skills. 4 Developments in technology that applies to the financial industry (‘fintech’) are already increasing the demand for e-skills from employees of all qualifications and levels of seniority. Therefore, general and keyboard clerks, numerical and material recording clerks, and other clerical support workers’ occupations will require strong numeracy skills (especially for those working in the financial services sector), 5 general and host-industry-specific software knowledge, and understanding of specific computer hardware and peripherals.
Most importantly, digitalisation is expected to continue shrink the demand for occupations such as numerical clerks. 6 As some tasks are being replaced by computers and software applications, clerks will need to strengthen the skills that are resilient to automation, such as soft skills, customer service and complex problem solving within teams.
- Technological advancements will have a deskilling effect 7 on workers within this occupational group. 8 At the same time, clerks that will retain their jobs and new entrants are expected to increasingly take on additional higher functions, including customer service, quality control, research and management. 9 This will also push clerks to develop an active positive learning attitude and concomitant ‘soft skills’, such as communication, problem solving and team work. 10
- Globalisation reshapes the division of the tasks in industries and companies that participate in cross-border value chains. The tasks performed by general and keyboard clerks, numerical and material recording clerks, and other clerical support workers’ are deeply affected by information flows, which have been disrupted and are now reorganising themselves along new global value chains. Ostensibly, more generic clerical functions will be outsourced outside Europe, but more specialist, less routine and more niche clerical functions will remain. 11
- The trend towards increased regulation will continue in the aftermath of the biggest financial crisis of the last 80 years 12; even after the high number of changes implemented so far, several objectives lay ahead (e.g. the banking union) 13. A constant update of financial skills is therefore demanded by these clerical workers in the financial and insurance activities sector. Also, data Protection regulation has experienced a similar pattern, 14 and clerks will likely have to take into account changes in everyday administrative procedures (e.g. filing).
- The rise in demand for sustainable goods and services, often fuelled by legislators’ choices, will emphasise the importance of ‘green’ skills. There will be increased ‘greening’ of these clerks’ skills, especially in terms of understanding the organisation and service offer, environmental legislation and customer preferences. 15 The decisions of clerks, not just managers or people working in the environment sector who classified as ‘green collar workers’, could have substantial impact, given that they represent the third largest occupational group across the EU. 16 Knowledge of the efficient use of resources, in terms of accessing and using goods and services, and recycling will also become paramount.
- Risk of automation: As a part of its Digitalisation and future of work project, Cedefop estimates the risks of automation for occupations. The most exposed occupations are those with significant share of tasks that can be automated – operation of specialised technical equipment, routine or non-autonomous tasks – and those with a small reliance on communication, collaboration, critical thinking and customer-serving skills. The risk of automation is further accentuated in occupations where employees report little access to professional training that could help them to cope with labour market changes. Office, accounting and support clerks belong to occupations where the automation risk is lower.
The Maltese “Employment and Training Corporation” has devised a Vocational Education course in office procedures, which gives an example of a comprehensive approach to deal with the challenges that general and keyboard clerks, numerical and material recording clerks, and other clerical support workers. At the end of the course, the successful learner will be able to not only deal with some of the classic tasks related with clerical jobs (i.e., receive incoming and send outgoing communications, effectively through electronic mail, letters, forms, telephone, fax and courier; collaborate with other staff members in a professional way and through effective means of communication, [..] communicate effectively when using the telephone and answering machines; devise and complete letters, forms, memos and other mail, in an effective manner; deal with customer’s queries and/or complaints effectively”), but it will also be able to deal with the most recent challenges derived from recent drivers of changes as listed above. Therefore, waste reduction and recycling initiatives in office environment are an integral part of the formation process, as well as instructions on how to conform to Data Protection Regulations, and the “use of different media channels, so as to effectively market and promote the company’s image and brand”. Source: https://jobsplus.gov.mt/ |
How can these skill needs be met?
Office, accounting and support clerks are expected to face employment pressures and skill challenges in the following years.
Providing qualitative and accessible training to these workers would be indispensable for their job security and development. This training should take into account three target groups: the older workers, who should be able to get acquainted with new trends (such as ‘green’ skills, new legislation and technological changes); the new entrants, who will need both these skills on top of the typical clerical and administrative ones; as well as those who lost their job as clerks due to skills obsolescence or the economic crisis. Up- and re-skilling programmes will need to focus not only on technical skills (such as e-skills, operation of specific software and hardware), but also soft skills that could be more resilient to replacement from automation.
References
All web-links were last accessed December 2nd, 2019.
[1] Defined as ILO ISCO 08 groups 41 general and keyboard clerks, 43 numerical and material recording and transport clerks and 44 other clerical support workers. ILO (2012) International Standard Classification of Occupations ISCO-08.
[2] 2018 Cedefop skills forecast.
[3] The need to replace workers leaving a profession for various reasons, such as retirement. For more information on replacement demand and how it drives employment across sectors, can be found here, accessed 16 June 2016.
[4] OECD Education Working Papers 2010, How technology changes demands for human skills, OECD 2013, The skills needed for the 21st century and European Commission 2013, Employment and social developments in Europe 2012: The skill mismatch challenge in Europe.
[5] According to the specific sub-occupational group and complexity of the assigned tasks.
[6] Blix, M 2015, The economy and digitalization – opportunities and challenges.
[7] ‘Deskilling’ here regards the minimisation of workers’ skills due to factors such as technology/automation, attrition, lack of learning opportunities, etc.
[8]Careerbuilder, One in Five Companies Have Replaced Workers with Technology, According to New Research from CareerBuilder and Economic Modeling Specialists Intl, accessed 16 June 2016.
[9]Department for Business Innovation and Skills 2013, Hollowing out and the future of the labour market; OECD 2013, The skills needed for the 21st century, and European Commission 2013, Employment and social developments in Europe 2012: The skill mismatch challenge in Europe.
[10]DEPICT Project 2012, Literature review: Understanding employer skills’ needs across Europe and CfA business skills @ work 2012, Business and administration: Labour market report.
[11]Department for Business Innovation and Skills 2013, Hollowing out and the future of the labour market.
[12]European Commission, Banking and finance, Progress of financial reforms, accessed 16 June 2016.
[13]European Commission, Banking union, accessed 16 June 2016.
[14]European Commission, Justice, Building a European area of justice, Protection of personal data, accessed 16 June 2016.
[15] International Labour Organization 2011, Skills for green jobs a global view synthesis report based on 21 country studies.
[16] EIANZ 2013, Who are the Green Collar Workers?
Data insights details
Table of contents
Page 1
SummaryPage 2
Key factsPage 3
Tasks and skillsPage 4
What are the trends for the future? 2Page 5
Which drivers of change will affect their skills?Page 6
How can these skill needs be met?Page 7
References