Office associate professionals: skills opportunities and challenges (2023 update)

Summary

Office associate professionals are one of the largest occupational groups in the EU, accounting for around 7 per cent of EU employment. These workers are employed across many EU economic sectors. They conduct various office operations and provide a variety of services within the sectors in which they are occupied. Their roles range from conducting financial accounting and transaction tasks, data analysis, human resource development, and providing various business services such as conference planning and real estate transactions. Jobs within this group include asset managers and traders, credit risk managers, accounting and statistical assistants, insurance brokers, conference planners, employment agents, office managers, editorial assistants, customs officers, and tax inspectors.

Key facts

• Around 13 million people were employed as office associate professionals in 2022, which accounts for almost 7 per cent of total EU employment. 
• Between 2012 and 2022 overall employment increased by 5 per cent. Over the same period employment across all occupations in the EU increased by almost 8 per cent.
• Between 2019 and 2020, during which the EU experienced economic lockdowns, over 400 thousand office associate professional jobs were lost. By the end of 2022, employment was still 150 thousand workers short of the pre-Covid 19 level.
• About half of office associate professionals – a combined 47 per cent in 2021 – are employed in the wholesale and retail trade, the public administration and defence, and the financial and insurance activities sectors. When looking at the distribution of office associate professionals within sectoral employment, office associate professionals accounted for 45 per cent of employment in the real estate services.
• Almost half of office associate professionals held medium (ISCED 3 and 4) and high level (ISCED 5 or above) qualifications in 2021. By 2035, most office associate professionals are expected to hold high-level qualifications.
• Most office associate professionals are women (almost 55 per cent in 2021). 
• The employment of office associate professionals is projected to further grow between 2022 and 2035. 
• By 2035 the employment of office associate professionals is expected to grow by approximately 600 thousand jobs. However, the number of office associate professionals to be filled over the same period will be much larger. This is because an estimated 7.9 million people are expected to leave the occupation mainly due to retirement. Considering also the expansion demand, this means that an estimated 8.5 million job openings will need to be filled between 2022 and 2035. 
• New tools like digital management and event planning, blockchain technologies, and the prevalence of online sales – along with the cybersecurity threats they raise – will drive changes in the skills required of office associate professionals in the future. The adoption and promotion of sustainability practices (from selling sustainable products to carbon accounting) will also affect the skills required of certain office associate professionals’ jobs.
   

Employment and job demand 

Employment trends for office administration associate professionals were similar to all technicians and associate professional jobs in the past decade. Large employment drop during the Covid-19 pandemic, was compensated for by faster recovery in the growth years.

Figure 1: Year-to-year employment change for office associate professionals (2013-2022)

Source: European Labour Force Survey. Employed persons by detailed occupation (ISCO-08 two digit level) [LFSA_EGAI2D__custom_7778289]. Own calculations.

Around a third of office associate professionals (30 per cent) are engaged as sales and purchasing agents and brokers. People employed in these jobs act as representatives of public and private organisations in buying and selling goods and services. They also act as independent agents that bring together buyers and sellers of commodities and services.

About a quarter of office associate professionals (24 per cent) are engaged as administrative and specialised secretaries who assist in office tasks related to organisation, communication, and documentation. They supervise the work of clerical support workers, prepare and process legal documents, and support internal communication within an enterprise.

In total, 21 per cent of office associate professionals are engaged as financial and mathematical associate professionals. These are workers engaged in the valuation of items and property, conducting and recording maintenance of financial transactions, and data analysis.

Around 14 per cent of office associate professionals are engaged as business services agents, who sell various forms of services to businesses. These include carrying out customs clearance procedures for exports or imports, arranging conferences and other events, finding workers to fill vacancies, presenting property that is for sale or lease, arranging contracts for artists and performers, and selling various objects via auctions.

An additional 10 per cent of office associate professionals are engaged as government regulatory associate professionals, who are in charge of enforcing government rules and regulations related to national borders, taxes and social benefits, and licences issued by the government (such as driving and construction licences). They are also those investigating the potential violation of these regulations.

Over time, the employment share of sales and purchasing agents, as well as business services agents grew, while the employment share of administrative and specialised secretaries declined.  

Figure 2: Employment in office associate professional jobs (in %)

Source: European Labour Force Survey. Microdata. Own calculations.

The OJAs for this occupation consist of almost equal share of the first four detailed occupations – sales and purchasing agents, secretaries, finance associate professionals, and business services agents. It is likely that the fifth group – government regulatory associate professionals – is underrepresented in OJAs, as its vacancies may be published by other means than on OJA portals. 

For more details on skills demand and job openings for this occupation,  please access the Cedefop’s Skills OVATE tool.

Figure 3: Online job advertisements for office associate professionals (2022, in %)

Source: Skills in Online Job Advertisements indicator based on Cedefop’s Skills OVATE. Own calculations. Note: Online job advertisements are by definition not equivalent to job vacancies. See Beręsewicz (2021) or Napierala et al. (2022).

Over time, there has been a shift in sectoral employment of office associate professionals. The public administration and defence sector, the largest employer of these workers in 2016, have been replaced by wholesale and retail trade. The number of office associate professional jobs in financial and insurance activities, and professional, scientific and technical activities has also been growing.

Figure 4: The top sectors employing office associate professionals (in %)

Source: European Labour Force Survey. Microdata. Own calculations.

As regards the share of office associate professionals within sectors, these workers form a significant portion of the workforce in the Real estate activities sector. In 2021, office associate professionals constituted the largest occupation within this sector, accounting for 45 per cent of its employment.

The share of employment in each country varies quite much across countries, from 3 per cent in Greece and Romania to over 8 per cent in Luxemburg (Figure 5). 

Figure 5: Office associate professionals as a share of overall country employment (2021, in %)

Source: European Labour Force Survey. Microdata. Own calculations. 
Note: Data for CY, EE, IS, LV and LU have lower reliability because of the small sample size.
LFS data for MT are not available. 

Women comprise more than half of the workforce. In 2016, 55 per cent of office associate professionals were women, compared to 46 per cent across the economy as a whole. These shares have not changed much by 2021.

The age structure of office associate professionals displays a pattern typical for skilled non-manual occupations, with roughly one-third of workers being aged 50 or more years, with this share rising slightly in recent years.

Figure 6: Office associate professionals by age (in %)

Source: European Labour Force Survey. Microdata. Own calculations.

Most office associate professionals have full-time and indefinite contracts. The share of workers reporting to have either part-time or temporary contracts involuntarily is very small, and the share of workers reporting to start a new job recently is only around 6 per cent, below the all occupations average.

Figure 7: Contract and hiring trends for office associate professionals (in %)

Source: European Labour Force Survey. Microdata. Own calculations.

Skill needs and future trends

The work of office associate professionals depends on strong interpersonal skills, especially in dealing with people outside of their organization, and providing advice or counselling. Other skills and task needs are similar to all occupations average. Almost all workers need to have basic to moderate ICT skills, and they report above average need to use spreadsheets and specialised software. Frequent changes in work tasks, processes and technologies are reflected in high upskilling needs.

Figure 8: Skills, training needs and job perception of office associate professionals (in %)

Source: European Skills and Jobs Survey. Microdata. Own calculations.
Unless stated otherwise, it is a share of people reporting that a task/skill is part of their job.
*Always or often
** Share of workers reporting these needs to a great or moderate extent.

Cedefop’s Skills forecast provides a detailed view of the future demand for office associate professionals. Overall, employment for office associate professionals is expected to increase by more than 4 per cent over the period 2022 to 2035. This means that, compared to 2022, there will be about 607 thousand more office associate professional jobs.

For most countries, past employment changes (i.e., growth or decline in employment) are expected to continue in the next decade as well. Figure 9 compares the employment growth experienced over the relatively recent past to that projected to take place in the future. Employment in most countries (17) grew in the past decade and it is forecast to do so in the next decade as well. Latvia, Ireland, and Portugal are among those with the highest past and expected future growths, while Lithuania represents the opposite trend. 

Figure 9: Past and expected future employment trend of office associate professionals

Source: European Labour Force Survey. Microdata. Cedefop Skills Forecast.
Note: Data for CY, EE, IS, LV and LU have lower reliability because of the small sample size.
LFS data for MT are not available. 

New job creation is, however, not the main driver behind job demand. Most job openings are a result of people leaving them for other opportunities, or those leaving the labour market completely (retirements; parent leave, etc.). This replacement demand is much more substantial, and in the case of the office associate professionals it exceeds the new job creation 13 times, as it is estimated at 7.9 million (Figure 10). 

Overall, when expansion demand is added to the replacement demand, an estimated 8.5 million job openings for office associate professionals will need to be filled between 2022 and 2035.

Figure 10: Future job openings for office associate professionals (000s)

Source: Future job openings indicator based on the Cedefop Skills Forecast. Own calculations.

The shares of office associate professionals holding medium-level (i.e. at ISCED levels 3 or 4) and high-level (ISCED level 5 or above) qualifications in 2021 were almost equal (around 48 per cent). By 2035, more office associate professionals are expected to hold high-level qualifications. Their share is projected to increase to 59 per cent from 2022  to 2035, while the share of medium-qualified workers is forecast to decline to 39 per cent over the same period. 

Looking forward

Office associate professionals are distributed across a variety of sectors, such as wholesale and retail trade (17 per cent), public administration and defence (16 per cent), financial and insurance activities (13 per cent), and manufacturing (11 per cent). Future developments in these sectors relate to the emergence of digital technologies and the need to measure and reduce carbon footprint and will affect the skills required for this occupation in the future.

• Digitalisation, automation, and other technological developments are set to reduce routine and repetitive tasks within the workload of office associate professionals and increase the value of transversal and soft skills (Sampson, 2021). Digitalisation has the potential to improve the efficiency of office associate professionals’ work, provided there is a level of digital literacy. Secretarial roles are much aided by digital tools in tasks related to document filing, database management, knowledge management, implementation and maintenance of administration procedures, and organisation of meetings and travel (Musty, 2023).  For instance, corporate secretaries should be able to critically assess the digital tools that management decides to adopt. They are often the first ones to get trained in the new technologies and will have to support colleagues in adaptation.
• Sales and purchasing agents will have to adapt to a more data-driven approach rather than their own judgment on when and how to interact with customers, as well as get used to operate within a digitalised system of collaboration with other business departments (Sinha et al, 2022). Knowledge of blockchain technology might be particularly useful for information sharing, while cybersecurity threats targeting online sales force these agents to train to recognise such threats and act accordingly. 
• Digitalisation of taxpayer data and tax processes has significantly improved the administrative burden of accounting associate professionals and it gives them more time to focus on higher-value activities (Estevao, 2021). However, technological advancements in this field will prompt their continuous training to remain relevant. According to the International Federation of Accountants, blockchain offers considerable advantages for people in this profession. It enables digitalisation of certain accounting activities, like triple-entry bookkeeping, the inalterability of transactions, the automation of repetitive tasks that do not require discretionary choices, the representation of cryptocurrencies in financial statements, and value-chain management (Bellucci et al, 2021).
• Office associate professionals are employed across various sectors of the economy, whereas the green transition unfolds in specific ways. The European Green Deal (EGD) has set the goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050, with implications for sustainable growth models of industry, business, and governments across the EU. For example, sales agents have a key role in communicating sustainability to customers (Corsaro & Olivieri, 2020). This means they will have to be knowledgeable of sustainability in their field, ranging from circular economy practices to eco-labels. The shift of consumer preferences towards sustainable goods and services opens up new market opportunities in cosmetics, pharmaceutical, fashion and food sectors (EIU, 2021). Meanwhile, office associate professionals dealing with real estate and property management will be impacted by EGD initiatives like the renovation wave or New European Bauhaus. Tax, excise and licensing officials will also have to take into account regulatory developments that set the legal framework for their work, such as the 2021 European Commission proposal for a revision of the Energy Taxation Directive that seeks to alter the way energy products are taxed in the EU. Bearing in mind the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (Directive 2022/2464), financial and mathematical associates will need to increasingly work with carbon accounting solutions to ensure the decreasing climate impact of operations of organisations. Carbon accounting measures greenhouse gases (e.g. methane, carbon, nitrogen) to understand where the highest potential in emission reduction lies, where to implement new initiatives and to track the achieved performance (Jonkers, 2022).
• The past few years have significantly changed the modalities of office work. The Covid-19 pandemic required swift adaptation to distant modes of working – for instance telework, remote working and mobile work. This requires the ability to adapt to a variety of digital tools,  as well as time management and communication skills to be able to work in remote teams (Eurofound, 2022). In some particular tasks and jobs, the intersection of Covid-19 physical distancing measures and development of digital event tools has propelled a multitude of event formats, such as digital, virtual, hybrid, phygital, metaversal and physical. Therefore, associate professionals tasked with event management will need to consistently upgrade their digital skills to cater for the differentiating field of events (Piccioni, 2022).

Continuous digitalisation of work processes coupled with the pivot to sustainable growth strategies is set to have an impact of office associate professionals in a variety of ways. The green transition creates a regulatory framework, which requires further training and learning to ensure compliance, for instance, for financial and mathematical associate professionals. Meanwhile, administrative professionals may see increased responsibilities in ensuring the implementation of digital working processes in their organisations. Sales and purchasing agents will have to consider the changing customer preferences for more sustainable and green products and services.

Ensuring the relevant skills development for office associate professionals begins with initial education, which for these workers concerns both higher and vocational education, as according to Cedefop data, in 2019 and 2020 41 per cent of office associate professionals aged 15-34 reported possession of a vocational qualification. Around half of office associate professionals complete their studies in business, administration and law (Cedefop data, 2020). This means that business and law schools, as well as economics and related departments at universities or vocational schools, will be among the first to update their programmes to better match the skills demand with those supplied to office associates.

The BDMA (Big Data Management and Analytics) Erasmus Mundus joint master is an example of such an innovative study programme. Offered by a consortium of universities from Italy, France, Spain, Belgium and Netherlands, the BDMA seeks to train skilful data specialists by combining modules on Data Management, Data Analytics, and the Business Context. Also, the MSc in Sales 4.0 is an innovative international programme run by business schools in Berlin and Paris. By graduation, students will have enhanced competences for working in multinational settings, by gaining knowledge on consumer behaviour, digitalisation, AI and data analytics, financial reporting, managerial accounting, as well as cultural awareness.

In addition to education in their fields, however, office associate professionals will need continuous learning, up- and reskilling to be adaptable to the changes in the labour market. These learning experiences can be offered by training institutions, sectoral alliances or even projects. Continuous learning will be a central feature in the future of skills development. Professionals in business environments can balance working time with training through novel learning tools, such as micro-credentials. Micro credentials are flexible, short-term certified learning experiences targeted at individuals who would like to develop their skills, competences and knowledge on a particular topic.

For example, the Belgium-based Centre of Expertise for Finance Professionals (ABAF – BVFA) offers certified training courses for financial professionals. One of such programmes is the Certified Environmental, Social and Governance Analyst (CESGA), which aims to upskill professionals in financial affairs. The programme focusses on the integration of environmental, social and governance developments to financial decision making, and is hence relevant to all professionals ranging from accounting to asset management and credits/loans. Understanding the impact of environmental and social challenges will remain relevant for financial professionals, by integrating them into investment approaches, strategies, valuation models and reporting standards.

Customs, tax and excise officials may benefit from the catalogue of the Customs and Tax EU Learning Portal, where the European Commission offers a variety of digital learning tools for professionals, national administrations, trade and academia. These are grouped under sections on customs procedures, customs controls, excise duties, customs duties, indirect taxation, European IT systems and EU legislation.

Finally, the LEARN project has developed an upskilling curriculum for financial and mathematical associate professionals working in accounting in global freight and logistics. The training is structured in three modules: emissions calculation, assurance and developing a decarbonisation strategy. 

How to cite this publication:

Cedefop (2023). Office associate professionals: skills opportunities and challenges. Skills intelligence data insight.

Further reading

Bellucci, M., Cesa Bianchi, D., Manetti, G. (2022). ‘Blockchain in accounting practice and research: systematic literature review’, Meditari Accountancy Research, Vol. 30(7), pp. 121-146

Beręsewicz, M. and Pater, R. (2021). Inferring job vacancies from online job advertisements, Luxembourg: Publications Office, 2021. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-statistical-working-papers/-/ks-tc-20-008

Cedefop (2023). Skills in transition: the way to 2035. Luxembourg: Publications Office. http://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2801/438491

Corsaro, D. & Olivieri, M. (2020). ‘‘’Selling sustainability’’: How sustainability is communicated in selling in the post-lockdown era?’, conference proceeding, SIM Conference 2020: Il Marketing per unasocietà migliore, Varese, Italy

Directive (EU) 2022/2464 as regards corporate sustainability reporting, Official Journal of the EU, L322/15

Dong, T (2020). A Longitudinal Analysis of Job Skills for Entry-Level Data Analysts. Journal of Information Systems Education, 31, 312-326.

Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) (2021). ‘An eco-wakening: Measuring awareness, engagement, and action for nature’. World Wildlife Fund report, published 17 May 2021

Estevao, M. (2021). ‘Why tax administrations are embracing digital transformation’, in World Bank blogs. Published 01.12.2021.

Eurofound (2022). ‘The rise in telework: Impact on working conditions and regulations’, Publications Office of the European Union: Luxembourg

European Commission (2020a). A new Circular Economy Action Plan. COM (2020) 98 final

European Commission (2020b). A Renovation Wave for Europe – greening our buildings, creating jobs, improving lives. COM (2020) 662 final

European Commission (2021a). New European Bauhaus: Beautiful, Sustainable, Together. COM (2021) 573

European Commission (2021b). Proposal for a Council Directive restructuring the Union framework for the taxation of energy products and electricity (recast).  COM (2021) 563 final

European Commission (2023). Customs & Tax EU Learning Portal

Jonkers, L. (2022). ‘Carbon accounting: what it is and why your company should start doing it’, World Economic Forum, article, published 5 December 2022

Musty, B. (2023). ‘Analyzing the Changing Role of Professional Secretary in Dealing with The Impact of Digital Technology (A Case study on Professional Secretaries in Indonesia’, in International Journal of Business Economics and Social Development, Vol. 4(1), pp. 12-19

Napierala, J.; Kvetan, V. and Branka, J. (2022). Assessing the representativeness of online job advertisements. Luxembourg: Publications Office. Cedefop working paper, No 17. http://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2801/807500

Piccioni, N. (2023). ‘From physical to metaversal events: an exploratory study’, in Italian  Journal of Marketing, pp, 1-16

Regulation (EC) No 66/2010 on the EU Ecolabel. Official Journal of the European Union L 27/1

Sampson, S.E. (2021). ‘A Strategic Framework for Task Automation in Professional Services’, in Journal of Service Research, Vol. 24(1), pp. 122-140

Sinha, P., Sahay, D., Shastri, A., Lorimer, S.E. (2022). ‘How to Digitalize Your Sales Organisation’, In Harvard Business Review, September-October 2022

Walker, D. (2021). ‘How Digitalization Redefined the Corporate Secretaries’, in Convene. Published 11.02.2021.