|
The
outlook for this cluster in Tennessee is Ungraded.
That
is: The growth rate is negative (declining occupations), OR
fewer than 11 job openings are expected annually, OR supply
and demand analysis is impossible either because no classroom
training is required or training is too general to be specified.
National
Supply and Demand for Financial Clerks
Overall
employment of financial clerks is expected to grow more slowly
than the average for all occupations through 2010. Despite
continued growth in the volume of business transactions, rising
productivity stemming from the spread of office automation,
as well as organizational restructuring, will adversely affect
demand for financial clerks. Turnover in this large occupation,
however, will provide the most job openings. As a result,
opportunities should be plentiful for full-time and part-time
employment as financial clerks transfer to other occupations
or leave the labor force.
Many
basic data entry accounting and clerical jobs already have
become heavily automated. Productivity has increased significantly,
as workers increasingly use personal computers instead of
manual entry and time-consuming equipment such as typewriters,
adding machines, and calculators. The growing use of bar code
readers, point-of-sale terminals, automated teller machines,
and optical scanners that record transactions reduces much
of the data entry handled by financial clerks. In addition,
the use of local area networks also is facilitating electronic
data interchange—the sending of data from computer to
computer—abolishing the need for clerks to reenter the
data. To further eliminate duplicate functions, many large
companies are consolidating their clerical operations in a
central office where accounting, billing, personnel, and payroll
functions are performed for all offices—main and satellite—within
the organization. In addition, as more companies merge or
are acquired, accounting departments also are usually merged,
reducing the number of financial clerks. More companies also
are outsourcing their accounting functions to specialized
companies that can do the job more efficiently.
Despite
the expected slow growth, some financial clerks will fare
better than others. The number of gaming cage workers should
grow over time as more Indian tribes become involved in gaming.
Also, the number of bill collectors is expected to increase
as consumer debt continues to rise. The healthcare services
industry is expected to hire more financial clerks, particularly
billing clerks, to match the explosive growth of this sector
and to process the large amounts of paperwork required to
process patient claims.
Source:
U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics
|
