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Secretaries Survive Redundancy Threat
Executary News, July/August 2009 According to the latest Labour Force Survey (LFS) figures, secretarial positions are holding up under the recent onslaught of redundancies. Out of 10 sectors, the secretarial profession ranks fifth with only a 1.3% increase in unemployment between 2008 and 2009. John Philpott, chief economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), believes there are several reasons why PAs are escaping the worst of the fallout. “The public sector has seen employment increases, which would have included administrative staff. Also, certain occupations, such as manufacturing, construction and financial services have been much harder hit than others, but it will be mainly frontline rather than administrative positions that are cut from those industries. Richard Grace, joint managing director of Gordon Yates, agrees that PAs are less vulnerable than many other trades. “It is all relative. We are not talking about a whole stack of people suddenly joining the dole queue. But we are seeing a certain amount of attrition.” “Many employers are postponing recruitment in the hope of an upturn. One of our secretaries at an architecture firm has just been asked to reduce to a three day week. Secretaries who leave positions are not being replaced.” Richard Grace sees grounds for optimism in the financial job market: “That world was really rocked on its heels but now it is showing signs of an early pick-up. One third of our new jobs are in that sector.” Executary News, July/August 2009