Australian Jobs 2021
Clerical and Administrative Workers
Annual employment growth
Clerical and Administrative Workers provide support to businesses by organising, storing, manipulating and retrieving information. Employment is spread widely across industries but most jobs are likely to be office-based.
There are opportunities in this group for workers who do not hold post-school qualifications, with more than a third of this group not having completed further study.
Top employing occupations
| General Clerks | 311,200 |
| Receptionists | 164,500 |
| Accounting Clerks | 144,100 |
| Contract, Program and Project Administrators | 123,000 |
| Office Managers | 115,900 |
This workforce is mainly female, with women accounting for 74% of these workers. Within this group, though, there is some variation with women making up 96% of Personal Assistants and Secretaries but only 37% of Clerical and Office Support Workers. The age profile of this occupation is relatively old, with close to a quarter of workers aged 55 years or older.
Competition for these positions can be fierce, with employers recruiting for Clerical and Administration Workers typically receiving the highest number of applicants per vacancy of all the occupation groups.
Despite the National Skills Commission determining no assessed Clerical or Administrative Workers occupations are in shortage though the 2021 Skills Priority List, strong projected future demand is anticipated for a number of occupations in this group, including Medical Receptionist, General Receptionist, General Clerk and Program or Project Administrator.
Employment by occupation subgroup, Clerical or Administrative Workers
| Employment | Employment Profile | Workforce Educational Profile | Projected Employment | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Employ’t May 2021 | 5 year change to May 2021 |
Part-time | Female | Aged 15 to 24 years | Aged 55 years or older | Bachelor degree or higher | Cert III or higher VET qual | No post-school qual | 5 year change to May 2025 | ||
| Occupation subgroup | ‘000 | ‘000 | % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % |
| Office Managers and Program Administrators | 270.2 | -30.4 | -10.1 | 27 | 68 | 4 | 22 | 36 | 31 | 29 | 8.2 |
| Personal Assistants and Secretaries | 80.4 | -16.3 | -16.8 | 36 | 96 | 8 | 26 | 20 | 38 | 31 | -16.6 |
| General Clerical Workers | 356.4 | 35.8 | 11.2 | 40 | 84 | 12 | 23 | 26 | 30 | 38 | 9.3 |
| Inquiry Clerks and Receptionists | 286.3 | 4.8 | 1.7 | 45 | 84 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 31 | 40 | 3.6 |
| Numerical Clerks | 383.2 | 12.3 | 3.3 | 40 | 79 | 7 | 25 | 34 | 28 | 32 | 0.6 |
| Clerical and Office Support Workers | 91.8 | -7.2 | -7.2 | 32 | 37 | 12 | 31 | 17 | 21 | 61 | -4.7 |
| Other Clerical and Administrative Workers | 239.6 | -0.2 | -0.1 | 20 | 50 | 9 | 18 | 25 | 29 | 38 | 3.1 |
| All Clerical and Administrative Workers | 1,715.7 | 4.0 | 0.2 | 35 | 74 | 10 | 23 | 28 | 30 | 36 | 3.5 |
Sources: ABS, Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations; ABS, Characteristics of Employment; ABS, Education and Work; ABS, Labour Force (seasonally adjusted and annual averages of original data); National Skills Commission, Employers’ Insights on the Australian Labour Market: 2020 Data Report; National Skills Commission, Skills Priority List, 2021.