Technology reduces the number of office workers, tourism and construction on the rise

2026-03-24 07:29:00, Ekonomi CNA

Technology reduces the number of office workers, tourism and construction on the

Short-term statistics for the last quarter of 2025 show a decline in office workers and in the industrial sector and, on the other hand, an increase in employment in activities related to tourism and construction.

According to official INSTAT data, a significant reduction is noted in business support activities, "Office administration, administrative support" with an annual decline in the employment index of -7.3% in the third quarter of 2025, ranking as the field with the strongest contraction in employees.

Office administration and administrative support is considered a service to businesses and is a good indicator of the health of other businesses. If other businesses are growing, they require more support and administrative services.

Market sources said the decline in office staff employment is also explained by automation and Artificial Intelligence. Many repetitive tasks such as invoicing, archiving and data management are now performed by software, reducing the need for support staff.

This negative employment trend has also extended to other sectors such as Transportation and warehousing, which contracted by -3.3% in the last quarter of 2025, as well as in the extractive and processing industries, which suffered an average decline of -2%.

The industry, mainly the manufacturing sector, is in a long crisis cycle that continues with employee layoffs as a result of falling foreign orders, rising domestic costs, and exchange rate losses.

Employment in legal activities also marked a slight decline, ending the year with a negative performance of -0.7%.

On the other side of the spectrum, tourism and trade are serving as the main drivers of employment growth. Hotels lead the way with an annual employment index growth of 10.8% in the last quarter of 2025, followed by Wholesale Trade at 10.1%.

Likewise, the construction and travel agencies sectors showed high resilience, expanding employment in the same period by 6.3% each. This stark contrast between the drastic decline in administrative services and the rapid growth in the hospitality sector suggests a reorientation of human capital towards the service economy and tourism by the end of 2025./ Monitor Magazine