The research, an analysis of Office of National Statistics data - also shows that London lost 44% of its secretarial roles in the same time period. Translated into figures, London lost 33,000 secretarial roles and the UK lost 163,000. Although the economic downturn has contributed to the demise of the secretarial role, the researchers say that technology is also a major cause.

Algorithms

Co-researcher Michael Osborne said: 'Secretaries are an occupation where the increasing ability of sophisticated algorithms to substitute for cognitive labour is already being felt.'  The research was conducted by Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne of Oxford University. Source: Financial Times