In a difficult labor market workers may have to "start at the bottom of the corporate ladder". Recent college grads that have yet to find work, for example, may have to lower their salary expectations and simply get their foot in the door, waiting for a better position to open up around them.
In this week's discussion of WANTED's Supply/Demand Ratios, we examine the best markets for Office and Administrative Support Workers to search for employment. Office/Admin Support jobs can represent good entry-level opportunities.
Remember that our S/D Ratios homepage also ranks occupations within a market, so that those not willing to move can see which occupations are in highest demand in their market (ex.Chicago, IL).
We focus on the top 8 detailed occupations within the broad "Office and Admin Support" occupational category (standard occupation group 43-0000). Only those occupations national employment greater than 1,000,000 are considered. Each occupation in the table below has a hyperlink which brings the user to our occupational "heat map" and S/D Ratios tables:
| SOC CODE | SOC DESCRIPTION | EMPLOYMENT | SALARY | WAGES PAID |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43-9061 | Office clerks, general | 2,900,000 | $27,000 | $77,984,000,000 |
| 43-4051 | Customer service representatives | 2,235,000 | $32,000 | $70,996,000,000 |
| 43-1011 | First-line supervisors/managers of office/admin support workers | 1,405,000 | $49,000 | $68,391,000,000 |
| 43-6011 | Executive secretaries and administrative assistants | 1,490,000 | $42,000 | $63,151,000,000 |
| 43-3031 | Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks | 1,855,000 | $34,000 | $62,699,000,000 |
| 43-6014 | Secretaries, except legal, medical, and executive | 1,870,000 | $30,000 | $56,143,000,000 |
| 43-5081 | Stock clerks and order fillers | 1,875,000 | $23,000 | $43,350,000,000 |
| 43-4171 | Receptionists and information clerks | 1,100,000 | $25,000 | $27,879,000,000 |
Combined, these 8 occupations employ around 15 million workers, or fully 10% of the US workforce. $470 billion dollars are paid out in wages every year to these 8 types of workers.
The table below presents the number of online job ads for these 8 occupations in the top 6 US markets in September 2009:
Source: WANTED Supply/Demand Ratios
Finally, what's the outlook for this occupation? Are these types of jobs in demand, or are companies hiring fewer and fewer of them? The time-series below shows the number of new online job ads for Office/Admin Support Occupations in the US, on a monthly basis:
Source: WANTED Analytics
Like most occupations, hiring trended downwards with the recession starting in Jan 2008, and took a hit in October 2008 when the financial crisis struck. Since then, even though the number of jobs ads is half its pre-recession level, Hiring Demand has been steadily trending back upwards.
Particularly of note is the seasonal movement in October. Office/Admin workers see spikes in demand in March and October (after the Labor Day slowdown). This month is a great time for these types of workers to seek employment opportunities.
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