Other support clerks: skills opportunities and challenges (2023 update)

Summary

Other support clerks (hereafter support clerks) account for around 1 per cent of all employment in the EU. These workers perform many support activities across various economic sectors, both public and private. Technological change threatens their jobs as some of their everyday tasks have the potential to be automated. 
Other support clerks fulfil various roles such as mail sorting delivery, document filing, maintaining records, correcting proofs, assisting persons who are unable to read or write, and a range of miscellaneous clerical duties. Jobs within this occupation include library assistants, post people, coding clerks, proof-readers, HR assistants, advertising assistants, and foreign language correspondence assistants.

Key facts

• Around 1.6 million people were employed as support clerks in 2022, which accounts for less than 1 per cent of total EU employment. 
• Between 2019 and 2020, and despite the various lockdowns and stagnation of business activity in the EU, support clerk jobs increased, albeit only by 34 thousand. By the end of 2022, employment had reached the pre Covid-19 level.
• Between 2012 and 2022 overall employment declined markedly (by one third). Over the same period, employment across all occupations in the EU increased by almost 8 per cent.
• Across economic sectors, most support clerks – 42 per cent in 2021 - are employed within the transportation and storage sector.
• More than half of support clerks have attained a qualification level of ISCED 3 and 4 in 2021, equivalent to the education level achieved after completing upper secondary education. The qualification level of the occupation is expected to change slightly in favour of high-skilled workers over the period to 2035.
• The majority of support clerks are women (60 per cent in 2021).
• The employment of support clerks is projected to decline markedly (by 25 per cent) between 2022 and 2035.
• Despite the projected employment decline, there will still be plenty of job opportunities for customer clerks. An estimated 770 thousand people will be needed to replace those who are expected to leave the occupation, which is mainly a result of retirement. Combined with the projected loss of about 400 thousand jobs, it is estimated that between 2022 and 2035 more than 300 thousand support clerk job openings will need to be filled. 
• Digital technologies -including AI, drones, and robots- will drive changes in the skills required of support clerks in the future. Some jobs are bound to be automated while in others workers are threatened by skills obsolescence. Outsourcing of tasks can reduce jobs for coders and proofreaders, while the measures in the European Green Deal will affect the skills required of support clerks in the Transportation and storage sector.
   

Employment and job demand

The employment of support clerks was declining fast in the wake of the financial crises and stabilised since 2015. Although employment in the occupation remained stable during the first year of Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a larger decline in 2022. 

Figure 1: Year-to-year employment change for other support clerks (2013-2022)

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

Nearly half (42 per cent in 2021) of support clerks are employed in the Transportation and storage sector (see Figure 2). Other sectors with a significant number of support clerks are public administration and defence, which in 2021 employed 10 per cent of support workers, manufacturing, (where 8 per cent of support workers were employed in 2021), as well as Arts, entertainment, recreation, and other service activities. In that sector around 6 per cent of support workers were employed in 2016 and their numbers did not change much by 2021. The remaining 34 per cent of support clerks’ employment is distributed across various other sectors. 

Figure 2: The top sectors employing support clerks (in %)

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

As regards the share of support clerks within sectoral employment, these workers appear to be a significant part of the workforce in the transportation and storage sector. In 2021, support clerks constituted the third largest occupation within this sector, accounting for 6.5 per cent of its employment.

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

Support clerks account for a very small part of employment in EU countries. Their share in total country employment varies from 2.8 per cent in Ireland to less than 1 per cent in Spain, Romania, Greece or Sweden (Figure 3). 

Figure 3: Support clerks 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. 

More than half of support clerks are women (60 per cent in 2021). Support clerks are relatively aged compared with the average across all occupations, but not markedly so (Figure 4). Also, the occupation appears to be comprised of a younger workforce in 2021 compared to 2016. While in 2021 33 per cent of support clerks were aged 50 to 64 years compared with 28 per cent across all occupations. This movement against the overall trend could be attributed to the large employment decline (39 per cent) in the past decade. Also, technological change may have pushed older workers out of the occupation. 

Figure 4: Support clerks’ workforce by age (in %)

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

Support clerks are usually employed in private businesses (e.g., personnel and filling and copying clerks) and public administration offices (e.g., library clerks and mail carriers). There is a higher occurrence of temporary contracts, but not part-time ones (see Figure 5). 

Figure 5: Contract and hiring trends for support clerks (in %)

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

Skill needs and future trends

Clerical support workers usually deliver and sort mail, file documents, and assist others with support duties. Naturally, the need for problem-solving, innovative and advanced literacy tasks is not the highest. However, considering that most of the work is in digital form nowadays, skills in how to operate digital devices and software are wanted. Hence, there is also a need to develop those skills through additional training. In general, other support clerks declare to be satisfied with their labour while also feeling job security.

Figure 6: Skills, training needs and job perception of other support clerks (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 support clerks Overall, employment for support clerks is expected to decline markedly (by 25 per cent) over the period 2022 to 2035. This will add up to the large employment declines (of 39 per cent) experienced over the last decade (2011 to 2021).

Country-level employment will continue on its declining trends but with few exceptions. Figure 7 compares the employment growth experienced over the relatively recent past to that projected to take place in the future. Employment in eight countries grew in the past decade, but only in two of them (Cyprus and Ireland) it is forecast to do so in the next decade as well.

Figure 7: Past  and expected future employment trend of other support clerks 

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. 

Despite the expected employment decline, there shall be job opportunities. Most job openings are a result of people leaving them for other opportunities, or those leaving the labour market completely (retirements; parent leave and such). This replacement demand is frequently greater than the job positions to be created or lost in the future. In the case of the support clerks, replacement demand is estimated at about 770 thousand workers (Figure 8). This means that 47 per cent of the current employment level (1.6 million) across the EU will need to be replaced by 2035. 

Overall, when forecasted job destruction is added to replacement demand, an estimated 330 thousand job openings for support clerks will need to be filled between 2022 and 2035.

Figure 8: Future job openings for support clerks (000s)

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

More than half of support clerks held medium-level qualifications in 2021 (i.e. at ISCED levels 3 or 4). This is projected to change somewhat by 2035 towards high skill levels. In particular, the share of workers with low levels of qualification (ISCED level 2 or lower) is projected to fall by 5 per cent, while the share of highly qualified workers (i.e. those qualified at ISCED level 5 and over) is projected to increase by 13 per cent.

Looking forward

The skills and tasks relevant for support clerical workers have changed considerably in recent years. Technological change, globalisation and recently, the global pandemic challenge the ability of clerical support staff to remain afloat in an everchanging and digital world.  Certain tasks and skills are rendered irrelevant while new skill needs emerge.

• Digitalisation and technological change impact all occupations and has begun to substitute several jobs in this occupation. Technological tools such as voice recording assist people who are not able to write, while audio books can help those who are not able to read. Lately, AI and robot technology -especially drones- has been successfully used for delivering mail and parcels, see this most recent example from a Greek city. According to a recent Commission report, air drone delivery is one of the many emerging 'ecological' last mile delivery options, while it is also a driving force of the further digitalization of the European economy. This however is not good news for mail delivery personnel.
• Technological change affects much the transportation and storage sector, in which around half of support clerks are currently employed. Demand for higher degree of qualification and skills in a variety of new jobs like engineers, AI and big data specialists, information security analysts, and human-machine interaction designers will be increased, while at the same time automation will render other jobs in the sector redundant – especially those with routine and repetitive tasks. These include many clerical duties, like data entry, filing documents, and preparing information for processing (Chinoracky & Čorejová, 2019).
• In clerical support jobs such as library assistants and clerks, technological change threatens for skills obsolescence. Library clerks need to update their skillsets with digital competences such as online reference platforms and library cataloguing systems (see e.g., this vacancy from the National College of Ireland) to remain relevant and catch up with increasing demand for digital archive services. The recent Erasmus+ BIBLIO project investigates digital competence needs for librarians (see the box below). In addition, the growing trend to brand libraries as “third spaces” (see this example from Ghent city De Krook library) enhances needs for soft communication competences. These however were already a must for library workers, including assistants and clerks.

• A variety of measures and restrictions implemented during the first years of the Covid-19 pandemic had a great impact on the mobility of people, goods, and services.  This has highlighted the importance of digital competences for several occupations and especially those that were less prone to remote work prior to the pandemic. This includes jobs like library clerks, mail delivery workers etc. that belong to this occupation. According to latest Cedefop research, knowledge of digital skills allowed workers in many occupations to shift to remote working “basically overnight”. As remote work arrangements become more common in a post-pandemic world, workers in this occupation need to possess more and more advanced digital skills. Covid-19 appears to have also had positive effects on wok autonomy on clerical occupations, according to a recent European Commission’s JRC study.
• Globalisation and outsourcing may well affect employment levels for clerks occupied in proofreading and related jobs and in manual coding, as many of these jobs are being massively outsourced to third countries. See, for example, this report on outsourcing academic manuscript production to Asian countries. This trend was well established before the pandemic.
• The transportation and storage sector is in transformation not only because of technological developments, but also the green transition. The European Green Deal has set an objective of achieving climate neutrality by 2050 which requires a reduction in transport emissions. As a large part of other support clerks work in transport & storage, their skillset, working processes, and frameworks are susceptible to change alongside the sustainable innovation in the sector (Tsakalidis et al. 2020).

Medium-skilled clerical occupations are expected to face challenges to their everyday workload that will put employment pressures in many jobs in the following years. According to recent Cedefop estimates, about 128 million adults in the EU-28, Iceland and Norway are either low-educated, have low digital skills, low cognitive skills or are medium-high educated at risk of skill loss and obsolescence, such as other support clerks. According to Cedefop in 2019 and 2020 more than half (51 per cent) of support clerks aged 15-34 reported possession of a vocational qualification. Although many of their main skills and tasks are prone to some form of automation, the risk of total redundancy is mitigated by the opportunities provided for re- and up-skilling through work-based and lifelong learning tools such as traineeships and micro-credentials.

• Quality and accessible training in the lifelong learning framework will encourage up- and re-skilling that other support clerks will require in the face of megatrends changing their jobs. Continuous training should combine both technical skills and know-how as well as softer, transversal competences that are less automatable. These could include management and organisation skills that are frequent for some jobs in the occupation (e.g., library assistants) but not so for others. Learning such skills could also pave the way for a future transition to professional jobs.
• According to Cedefop, micro-credentials consist of short learning activities provided to meet a variety of needs, such as specific professional development needs, ad hoc needs to close skills gaps and update skills, and internal company training and career development. The European Commission recognises them as a flexible and targeted way to help people develop the knowledge, skills and competences they need for their personal and professional development. For jobs of this occupation, micro-credentials could provide the necessary skills to stay afloat (e.g., digital competence) and for others (such as assistants to people that cannot read or write) they could provide the means to transition to a job with more future opportunities.
• Erasmus+ projects such as the BIBLIO project are examples of good practice when it comes for upskilling support clerks. The project investigated digital competence needs for librarians and resulted in the development of a tailored training programme for digital skills such as electronic resource management, data access, text and data mining competences (see the box below). The project also involved the development of VET curricula for emerging job profiles such as “Digital Transformation Facilitator”.

• Wok-based learning tools such as traineeships are particularly important for securing that middle-skilled occupations such as other support clerks acquire the necessary skills to face new challenges. These can be helpful both for young workers entering (or re-entering) the labour market and for workers wishing to transition from another job to clerical work. It is nowadays established that apprenticeships are particularly helpful in equipping people with the skills required in the labour market (cf. Cedefop’s research on the effective delivery of apprenticeships). The European Alliance for Apprenticeships provides support to countries and sectors looking to improve and expand the provision of apprenticeships.

How to cite this publication:

Cedefop (2023). Other support clerks: skills opportunities and challenges. Skills intelligence data insight.

Further reading

BIBLIO (2021). ‘Coming soon... the biblio massive open online course in the making’, Biblio website, 24.08.2021.

Chinoracky, R., & Čorejová, T. (2019). Impact of Digital Technologies on Labor Market and the Transport Sector. Transportation Research Procedia, 40, 994-1001.

European Commission (2022). EU Drone Sector state of play. SWD(2022) 336 final.

Mack, E.A., Agrawal, S., & Wang, S. (2021). The impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on transportation employment: A comparative analysis. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Vol. 12, 100470. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2021.100470.

Tsakalidis, A., van Balen, M., Gkoumas, K., & Pekar, F. (2020). Catalyzing Sustainable Transport innovation through Policy Support and Monitoring: The Case of TRIMIS and the European Green Deal. Sustainability, 12, 3171. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083171.

Cedefop (2020). Empowering adults through upskilling and reskilling pathways. Volume 2: Cedefop analytical framework for developing coordinated and coherent approaches to upskilling pathways for low-skilled adults. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. Cedefop reference series; No 113. http://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2801/61322.

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

Cedefop (2022). Microcredentials for labour market education and training: first look at mapping microcredentials in European labour-market-related education, training and learning: take-up, characteristics and functions. Luxembourg: Publications Office. Cedefop research paper, No 87. http://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2801/351271.

Cedefop (2021). Digital skills: Challenges and opportunities. Skills intelligence data insight. 22 February 2021.

Fana, M., et al., (2020), The COVID confinement measures and EU labour markets, EUR 30190 EN,Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg. ISBN 978-92-79-18366-2, doi:10.2760/69199, JRC120578.

Eurocities. New life for libraries. 19 August 2021.