Gender Mix

• According to a survey by the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP), females make up 81.22% of the global administrative workforce, while males make up 18.07%.
• The remaining 0.71% included those who declined to answer and those whose preferred gender was not listed.

Age

• The typical age of administrative assistants is 41-55 years, with 38.55% of respondents reporting to be in this age bracket.
• Other age-related demographic data include:
• Under 25: 0.61% 
• 26-40: 30.85% 
• 56-70: 28.78% 
• Over 70: 1.21% 

Educational Background

•  38.28% of respondents in the IAAP survey reported having some form of college education, but not a college degree, while 28.78% have a bachelor's or equivalent four-year college degree.
•  17.99% have a two-year college degree, while 5.83% have a high school degree or a GED.
•  4.79% of respondents have a master’s or professional degree (MA, JD, MBA, etc), while 4.09% attended vocational school.
• Only 0.14% and 0.10% of respondents have a doctorate and less than a high school degree, respectively.

Dominant Qualifications

•  31.70% of respondents have a current IAAP Certified Administrative Professional (CAP) certification, while 4.09% have a CAP that they have not recertified.
• According to Statistics Canada, "completion of secondary school is usually required," as well as the "completion of a one- or two-year college or other programs for administrative assistants or secretaries."

Typical Salary

• The typical annual base income for those in the administrative industry is $65,000 - $69,999 with 20.96% of the survey respondents indicating so.
• Other wage breakdown include:
• Less than $15,000 : 1.64% 
• $15,001 - $29,999 : 2.96% 
• $30,000 - $34,999 : 4.57% 
• $35,000 - $39,999 : 5.40% 
• $40,000 - $44,999 : 7.15% 
• $45,000 - $49,999 : 11.47% 
• $50,000 - $54,999 : 10.15% 
• $55,000 - $59,999 : 8.12% 
• $60,000 - $64,999: 9.69% 
• $70,000+: 17.89% 

•  55.47% report earning additional compensation for the extra time they work outside regular hours, while 42.43% do not.
•  58.05% of survey respondents are paid per hour, while 41.95% are paid a monthly salary.

Differences Between Permanent and Temporary working

• Only 2.07% of respondents in the IAAP survey were working part-time (less than 37 hours) without the help of an agency, while 0.27% were working part-time via a temporary agency.
• In the United Kingdom, men make up 32.32% of full-time administrative and secretarial occupation workforce, while women make up 67.68% of the workforce. [calculations below]
• However, when it comes to temporary administrative and secretarial occupation workforce, men only make up 9.09% while women make up 90.91%. [calculations below]

Research Strategy

Calculations

United Kingdom

• Number of worker working full-time in the administrative and secretarial sector: 2,101,000 
• Number of men working full-time: 679,000 
• Number of women working full-time: 1,423,000 

• Number of part-time workers in the administrative and secretarial sector: 1,078,000 
• Number of men working part-time: 98,000 
• Number of women working part-time: 980,000 

Region: Asia

• Many blue-collar workers may only be employed part-time even when they are available for full-time work. They are then just left idle the rest of the time.
• The skills of blue-collar workers are not fully utilized. They can only have lower-paid unskilled labor jobs even when they possess the skills to take on higher-paid work.
• Many blue-collar workers are living hand-to-mouth. They do not earn enough to have savings.
• This part of the workforce is dominated by men.

Region: Africa

• The career prospects of South African female blue-collar workers and their associated pay is at the lower end of the market. This is the case in spite of the rise in employment of South African women from 1999 to 2016. Women employed at the blue-collar skilled technical level increased from 40% to 46%, the semi-skilled level increased from 39% to 42.8%, and the unskilled level increasing from 29% to 40.7%.
• The jobs and industries in South Africa for blue-collar work are male-dominated, except for the clothing and textile industry. The clothing and textile industry is dominated by women.
• The food that blue-collar workers can afford to eat at home and bring to work is often unhealthy.

Region: Europe

• Manual jobs in European manufacturing are changing as blue-collar workers are now taking on more intellectual tasks. Thus, the workforce has been required to become better educated.
• This is due to the increasing use of digital tools and the growing importance of quality control in production.
• Intellectual tasks involving information processing and problem-solving are becoming more common in manufacturing jobs where physical tasks traditionally predominated.
• Workers in manual, semi-skilled occupations need to have more developed ICT skills. The literacy and numeracy related tasks they have to perform have increased, so they need to be able to read technical documentation or deal with numerical information.

Region: US

• According to a 2018 poll conducted in the U.S., around 86% of blue-collar workers indicated overall satisfaction with their job, signifying that jobs in these sectors don’t just deliver the means to survive, but also deliver a bit of existential satisfaction.
• In spite of this overall job satisfaction, for the past years, unemployment rates have steadily increased for every type of blue-collar worker, from managers all the way down to entry-level, low-skilled workers.
• It is also noteworthy that over this same period, the number of people with a bachelor’s degree has also steadily increased. This means that there are now more blue-collar jobs available than there are people who are willing or able to fill them.
• According to economic experts, one factor for this blue-collar job crisis in the US is the shifting demographics. For instance, baby boomers (those born between 1946 to 1964) are either retiring from the workforce or dying faster than new workers can replace them. Some estimates show that as many as 10,000 baby boomers may retire each day.
• According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there is a significant acceleration in recent years for the wage growth of blue-collar jobs. This acceleration rate is higher compared to the wage growth rate of white-collar jobs. 
• Based on the data from the US Census Bureau, there are large disparities in earnings between full-time, year-round male and female workers of blue-collar jobs, as of 2014. Male workers are generally paid more than female workers.

Gender

• In a study conducted on industrial blue-collar workers regarding the work-related stresses that they face, it is seen that workers for blue-collar jobs include men and women.
• Blue-collar jobs are available for both males and females. Male workers are generally paid more than female workers. 
• Women hold fewer than a third of U.S. factory jobs, and they fill just 9% of construction positions.

Educational Background

• Blue-collar work generally requires an associate degree or less education. 
• This type of work requires more than a high school diploma but less than a college degree.
• Those who earn a bachelor's degree are not likely to seek out jobs in the blue-collar field. 

Dominant Qualifications

•  Physical labor is often involved in blue-collar jobs such as oil-rig work, landscaping or construction.
• Blue-collar work involves skilled or unskilled labor and tends to be more manual in nature. But according to Aparna Mathur, resident scholar in economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, "the necessity for manual hard work is no longer true for certain positions that have become more high-tech".
• Companies now tend to demand that their blue-collar workers already have several years of experience or skills apprenticeships in order to get a job.

Typical Salary

• Around 50% of blue-collar jobs pay more than the jobs that require a four-year college degree. Michael D’Ambrose, senior vice president and CHRO for Archer Daniels Midland Co., a Chicago-based global food-processing and commodities trading corporation, confirmed this by saying that at their company "they pay about 50% more for a five-year apprentice technician than they do for an electrical engineer who just graduated from college".
• An elevator mechanic in the U.S. with 10 years of experience can earn a median income of $88,200. Still, according to Peter Cappelli, professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, "many of these jobs still don't pay enough to lure young adults".
• Blue-collar male workers typically make more than female workers. The typical annual salary of full-time male workers ranges from about $25,000 to $60,000 (depending on the type of job), while that of female workers ranges only from about $23,000 to $40,000.

Research Strategy

Region: USA

• According to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, as of 2017, 5.9 million people making up 3.8% of the entire workforce in the US, were employed in staffing jobs.
• Within the gender demographic, the likelihood of men and women being employed in this category was equal with 3.9% of total female employees and 3.8% of total male employees being employed in staffing jobs.
• Of this staffing job employee population, 27.5% were 16 to 24 years of age, 55% were in the 25 to 54 years age group and the remaining 17.4% were 55 years and older.
• In terms of educational qualifications, employees with a college degree formed the majority. 43.5% had a Bachelor's degree or higher, 20.9% had a college or an associate degree, 22.1% had only graduated from high school without further college education and 13.5% had less than a high school diploma.
• When observing the data by race, 3.7% of total white employees in the labor force, 4% of total Black or African American labor force, 4.9% of total Asian employees and 5.1% of Hispanic employees were working in the professional staffing category.
• For employees working full time, the weekly median salary was $685.

Region : European Union

• In the European Union including the UK, according to the Labour Market and Labour Force Survey (LFS), 12.1% of the total labor force in 2018 was employed in the professional staffing category.
• The gender distribution among these employees was fairly even with 49.94% of them being men and 47.03% of them being women. The remaining 3.03% provided no response.
• Age group of the employees belonging to this category lies in the 15 to 64 years range.
•  10.53% of these employees have received levels 0 to 2 of education which comprises less than primary, primary and lower secondary levels of education, 22.03% of them have attained levels 3 and 4 which include upper secondary, post-secondary and non-tertiary levels of education. 17.36% of these employees have levels 5 to 8 of education i.e. tertiary level and the remaining 50% had not provided a response.

Region: Asia Pacific

• Nearly one in four wage employees in total in Pakistan, Vietnam, Indonesia and Sri Lanka works at a staffing job.
• More men can be found working in staffing jobs than women, except in Sri Lanka where the difference is not noteworthy. In Pakistan, 34.5% of male wage employees and 26.3% of female wage employees belonged to this category.
• All the employees were 15 years and older. Though "youth" and "adult" have not been defined in this market update by the International Labour Organization, there was significant difference in terms of proportions of young and adult employees being employed in this category. For example, in Sri Lanka, 40.2% of young employees had staffing jobs compared to 30.7% among adult employees. In Indonesia, however, the proportion of adult employees was higher at 23.6% compared to 15% of young employees.
•  90% of these employees had primary level as their highest educational qualification. In Vietnam, 86% of staffing jobs employees had primary level as their highest level of education.
• Across the four countries, staffing jobs employees earned significantly lower than their regular counterparts. Staffing job employees in Pakistan were paid 39% less than their regular counterparts and similarly and staffing job employees in Sri Lanka were paid 28% lesser.

College Degree or Certificate

• For administration and clerical staffing job, recruiters require a minimum of High School Diploma and prefer candidates who have a 4-year degree.
• In healthcare and IT industry, based on the nature of job and the level of specialization required, minimum education qualifications required could range from a High School GED to a Master’s degree.
• In the legal field of work, often the minimum requirements include a High School Diploma along with a college degree and/or a paralegal certificate.

Knowledge of trade skills

• For administrative and clerical jobs, proficiency in typing and a minimum word per minute is often prescribed as necessary in order to be eligible for the job. Close attention to detail, proofreading and document editing skills are a few more skills that are needed to do these jobs.
• In the IT and medical industry, occupationally niche skills are considered necessary when applying for a particular job. For example, in order to be a lead maintenance technician, one must have working knowledge of preventative maintenance, electricity, air conditioning and plumbing.
• Staffing jobs in legal field also require basic understanding and knowledge of fundamentals of relevant law.
• These specialized skills and knowledge can be developed through a college degree in Engineering, Law, Medicine or through work experience in related environment.

Computer literacy and proficiency in Microsoft

• All sectors, including administrative, legal, IT, healthcare, and professional, specify that the proficiency in Microsoft Office applications is a necessary skill for staffing jobs.
• Computer literacy and knowledge of Microsoft applications can be developed by attending classes at YMCA or other institutions that provide similar services.

Reading, writing and understanding written information and instructions

• Across all sectors, the demand for processing and understanding written forms of communication was seen as a necessary requirement for the staffing job.
• In administrative and legal jobs in particular, this skill was given high importance in terms of a non-negotiable skill.

Arithmetic skills

• In the legal profession, basic arithmetic skills is necessary to complete daily projects.
• The IT and Engineering industry also require application of concepts like addition, subtraction, division and multiplications in addition to basic arithmetic.

Excellent written and verbal communication

• The ability to interpret information in written and oral form and to be able to express themselves effectively in both written and verbal form is a valuable skill across all sectors.
• In the legal, administrative, medical and IT sector this is an important skill that candidates must possess in order to present information for clients and to interact with customers.

Prior experience in the related field of work

• For example, legal secretaries and paralegals are required to have a minimum of more than 3 years of experience as a legal secretary or administrative paralegal for certain staffing jobs.
• Having more than 6 years of experience was a necessary requirement for one of the staffing jobs as a quality control technician.
• Similarly, a minimum of 2 to 3 years of experience is required for administrative jobs in the healthcare sector and for clerical administrative jobs.

Insights into the necessary skills for obtaining a job (Industrial/blue collar workers)

• Bizfluent, a blog dedicated to providing readers with business tips lists four essential blue collar skills as: having fine-tuned mechanical skills, being able to adapt to situations and solve problems, having sharpened physical capabilities such as good hand-to-eye coordination, and being fluent in computer literacy.
• Masterson Staffing Solutions, an organization designed to help individuals develop job skills and find career options lists six necessary skills for a manufacturing job as: being detail-oriented, being able to solve problems, having strong communication skills, being familiar with technology, presenting oneself as a reliable worker, and having the ability to cross-train.
• Both Bizfluent and Masterson highlight physical effectiveness, mechanical skills, problem solving, and computer literacy as centrifugal skills in navigating the blue collar workforce.
• The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) further emphasizes the necessity for skill training -- approximately three-tenths of one percent of the entire United States workforce has completed trade apprenticeships, whereas completed apprentices in various countries overseas account for more than thirty percent of their own workforce.

Skill Acquirement

• IndustryWeek, a magazine that sheds light on industrial trends for manufacturers, reports two methods for improving the skill sets of workers: digital training through Virtual Reality and proactive training through simulating outcomes.
• As education reform begins to expand, workers are able to obtain trade skills while attending courses.
•  Closing the Skills Gap is a project initiated by the World Economic Forum that aims to train the current and future workforce by working with business leaders.
• The World Economic Forum reports that thirty-three international organizations have pledged to take the initiative in providing the workforce with skills -- nearly eighty percent of those organizations have over fifty-thousand employees.
• As many as 6,432,400 workers have received training as a result of the efforts of the World Economic Forum, as of January 2019.

Typing Skills

• Administrative work requires adept typing skills. Those that provide administrative support in any industry, either part-time or full-time, are often required to do data entry and write emails, memos and letters. Administrative assistants must be able to type quickly and accurately.
• Those in the administrative workforce can improve their typing skills through practice, not only with speed, but with accuracy as well.
• There are several typing programs available online to improve typing skills such as Typing.com, Typsey and KAZ Typing.
•  Typing courses are also available as part of a certificate or degree program. Courses are generally offered through community colleges or vocational schools.

Computer Software Competency

• Those in administrative roles rely heavily on computer software programs to complete their day to day tasks. They manage schedules, input data, make travel arrangements, or perform basic invoicing. Most often, they require competency in programs like Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. However, they may also require proficiency in other programs like those found in the Microsoft Office suite, such as PowerPoint and SharePoint, as well as their Google equivalents.
• Most computer software programs offer basic tutorials. Some of these programs that someone in the administrative workforce may need competency include WordPress, Quickbooks, Google applications and HTML.
• Career development and training companies such as Fred Pryor and Software Pro offer online and live one or two day long seminars on computer software.
•  Microsoft Learn provides online and classroom training for many of their products, including SharePoint and Microsoft 365. They also offer certifications.
•  Computer literacy classes can also be found online and in the local community. These types of classes are typically standalone courses meant only for enrichment. They are usually free and are offered through the local library, an adult education program or community colleges. These courses cover basic computer skills.

Time Management

• Time management is an essential skill for anyone, especially those working in the administrative workforce. Those in the field are often required to handle multiple tasks that need planning, scheduling and execution. Maintaining a calendar, as well as establishing a timeline for tasks to be completed are necessary.
• Learning time-management requires setting goals, getting organized and learning from others. Additionally, one can improve their time management skills by making lists, delegating tasks, and setting deadlines.
• Seminars are available through various types of career development and training companies, such as Merit Career Development and Fred Pryor.
• There are several time management courses available online through various professional and educational sites including LinkedIn, Udemy and Coursera.

Interpersonal Skills

•  Interpersonal skills are necessary for anyone who interacts with other people. Those in the administrative workforce are most likely in positions that require frequent contact with all levels of an organization, customers, and the public. They need to be able to listen, speak, negotiate, problem solve, resolve conflict and make decisions.
• Interpersonal skills are a soft skill that is learned over time through interactions with other people.
• Most information about improving interpersonal skills come in the form of tips such as displaying a positive attitude, taking responsibility for one's actions and being more appreciative.
• Some tips include learning problem solving, being an active listener, and conflict resolution. These are areas that can be learned through career development companies like Fred Pryor.

Communication

• Communication is important in any industry. This is especially true of the administrative professional. They need to interact with varying levels of the organization and be able to understand requests and respond clearly and efficiently, as well as provide others with information.
• The administrative professional must be well versed in different forms of communication including verbal, nonverbal, written and visual. They also require a strong command of the English language in both written and verbal form.
• Communication is another soft skill that is learned over time.
• Some tips to improving communication include learning about nonverbal communication, asking for feedback, and to be an active listener.
• Communication is a broad field. Career development and training companies offer a wide variety of communication seminars both online and in the classroom to help sharpen this skill. Those courses include Dealing with Difficult People, Developing Emotional Intelligence, and the Secret to Effective Communication.

Organizational skills

• An administrative professional must posse organizational skills to be effective in their role. They are typically responsible for multiple tasks that require attention to detail and the ability to stay on top of what is expected of them and to be efficient.
• Organizational skills are both internal and external. Internal skills are observed when one has an orderly workspace, is able to remain calm and displays a systematic approach to planning and scheduling. External skills include being able to break down larger projects and delegate tasks efficiently while maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
• Organization covers a wide variety of topics and skills that are best honed through career development and training. These topics include Front Desk Safety and Security, Management Skills for Secretaries, and Managing Multiple Priorities. Each of these courses includes an element of organization that can be applied to make things run more efficiently.

Customer Service

• An Administrative professional needs to be able to answer questions, listen, set expectations and communicate effectively. They are often the face of an organization and interact most often with the company's customers.
• Customer service skills fall under the soft skills category. It is a skill that encompasses many, including communication and active listening.
• Developing or improving in this area require honing of the other skills that fall under the customer service umbrella. It is the support given to customers not only before, but also after using the product or service.
• Career development and training in the areas of communication, dealing with customer complaints, and telephone skills.

Research Strategies