t-clerical workers edge toward extinction

Secretaries in many ways have Become Obsolete

Bill O'Leary | The Washington Post

Lisa Rein | The Washington Post

Automation has been transforming the federal workforce for two generations.

  • In 1950, clerical jobs represented three-quarters of the federal workforce.

  • Today, these jobs are a mere 4 percent of the workforce of 2.1 million. That amounts to 87,153 people, less than a quarter of them secretaries.

  • And instead of supporting one executive in the C-suite, they work for five. Or for 50, as at the General Services Administration, where one assistant works for the entire executive staff.

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