Census Bureau Facts for Features
A product of the U.S. Census Bureau's Public Information Office Census Bureau CB99-FF.05 April 14, 1999 Professional Secretaries Day: April 21, 1999 Secretaries -- by the Numbers All facts in this section pertain to 1997, unless otherwise indicated. The United States had 3.0 million secretaries (also known as "administrative assistants"). Secretaries ranked among the most popular occupations in the U.S. economy. http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/cb98-226.html http://stats.bls.gov/oco/ocos151.htm About 99 percent of secretaries were women. That means only about 42,500 secretaries were men. In addition, 9 percent of secretaries were African American. http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/cb98-226.html According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, legal secretaries earned an average of $30,370, medical secretaries, $22,270 and all other secretaries, $23,970. Meanwhile, secretaries employed by the federal government earned an average of about $27,900 annually; their annual starting salary was $17,400. http://stats.bls.gov/oes/national/oes_cler.htm#b53000 Temp Agencies Perhaps your office's secretary is a "temp." If so, it is most likely that one of the nation's 37,374 personnel-supply services establishments (1996 data) provided them. Of these firms, 24,051 were temporary help-supply services firms and 13,067 were employment agencies. http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/cb98-233.html Personnel-supply services firms with employees generated $79 billion in receipts in 1997, up 17 percent from 1996. Secretarial workers contributed 22 percent of the receipts for the temporary help services supplied by these firms. http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/1999/cb99-08.html Top counties in number of temporary help-supply services establishments in 1996 were Los Angeles, Calif. (779), Cook, Ill. (540), Harris, Texas (495), Dallas, Texas (492) and Oakland, Mich. (384). In the number of people employed in these establishments, the leaders were Los Angeles (108,698), Dallas (69,452), Cook (66,274), Hillsborough, Fla. (60,579) and Maricopa, Ariz. (47,123). http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/cb98-233.html The preceding facts come from the Statistical Abstract of the United States, County Business Patterns, Service Annual Survey and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The data are subject to sampling variability and other sources of error. Previous 1999 Census Bureau Facts for Features: African American History Month (February 1-28), Valentine's Day (February 14), Women's History Month (March 1-31) and Countdown to Census 2000 (April 1). Questions or comments should be directed to the Census Bureau's Public Information Office (tel: 301-457-3030; fax: 301-457-3670; e-mail: pio@census.gov).
