Clerical support is provided by statistical assistants and, to a lesser degree, clerk typists. Each Regional Office also has an administrative officer who provides support for the program activities of the economists in the field.
Positions are generally transferable between regions and, to some extent, between programs.
An economist collecting compensation data out of the Detroit office, for example, requires the same knowledge and skills as one working in the same program area out of the Dallas office. Interviewing and people skills are needed across the programs and can translate into opportunities in other regional Branches. An economist who is an able interviewer for the Industrial Price Programs can adapt those skills to conduct interviews for the National Compensation Survey. Increasingly regional economists must have computer skills. The Bureau has an extensive computer network linking all the regional office sites as well as a remote access facility that allows data transmission and e-mail from anywhere in the country.