Written by John Rossheim (Monster Senior Contributing Writer)
What will 2008 hold for administrative professionals? With so many forces roiling the labor market – the trend toward just-in-time hiring, an economy squeezed by a credit crunch, technology that both destroys and creates jobs – it’s hard to say. But this perennial truth will hold: Great admins are hard to find, and they will be in great demand.
“During times of uncertainty, contingent business goes up,” meaning more temporary hiring of admins, says Dan Glazier, chief operating officer of Snelling Staffing Services in Dallas. “But 2007 has been fairly uncertain, and there’s been a lot of direct-hiring of permanent employees, so that’s countercyclical.”
Why is this happening? Companies are somewhat low on headcount overall, so that makes them more likely to hire full-time, says Glazier. Employers may also convert a temporary administrative position to full-time sooner rather than later, to avoid losing a top admin to the competition.
And administrative professionals can find themselves buffeted by short-lived but strong currents in local labor markets. “You can have microburst of demand for administrative work, then an overabundance of admins—things can change very quickly,” says Glazier. “Merger or acquisition could cause the elimination or creation of a position overnight.”
For more information about the future for administrative professionals, please follow this link.
