While gaining employment may still be an issue for the jobseekers of the UK, the situation has improved markedly since this time last year. And according to the latest figures released by the British Retail Consortium (BRC), growth in the retail sector has played a vital role in creating much-needed jobs.
The BRC-Bond Pearce Retail Employment Monitor has revealed that employment in retail properties rose by 1.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2013 when compared with the same period in 2012. Additionally, it discovered that food retailers took a predominant role in this growth, contributing a 1.4 per cent boost to employment to make up for a contraction in the previous quarter.
Moreover, the number of stores in the monitor’s sample overall increased by 253 year on year – a fact which is entirely down to an increase in new store openings in the food retail sector.
Director General of the BRC, Helen Dickinson, praised food retailers for their commitment to investing in communities.
She said; “It’s encouraging to see that store numbers have edged up a little and employment has also risen slightly, predominantly driven by part-time workers.
“But looking beyond the headlines reveals wide variations across the sector, as growth is coming almost entirely from food retailers while non-food has seen levels dip both for employment and store numbers.
“In light of last week’s unemployment figures, it’s reassuring to see that the retail sector is bucking the general trend and continuing to invest in people and communities. But we’d like to see this growth spread more widely across the sector rather than the current ‘tale of two halves’ presented in this quarter.”
It is fortunate, then, that the monitor also found that four out of five retailers surveyed plan to keep staffing levels constant or even increase the number of workers they employ throughout the next quarter. This is especially pertinent given that general employment figures fell for the first time in 16 months in March.
Head of Retail Employment at Bond Pearce, Christina Tolvas-Vincent, said; “There are clear concerns for the sector as a whole with redundancy figures up to the highest levels since the research began in 2008 and surprisingly there was no sign of increased recruitment to cover the Easter period.
“However, 80 per cent of retailers are planning to keep staff levels the same or raise them in the next three months, which offers some hope for the near future.”
The wider retail industry incurred some heavy losses in the past quarter, with chains such as HMV, Jessops and Blockbuster all entering administration after a disappointing Christmas sales period failed to lift their financial woes. However, with the recent purchase of HMV by Hilco and the re-opening of the Jessops chain by Dragon’s Den star Peter Jones, it is hoped that the second quarter of 2013 will yield more positive results for overall industry growth and, more importantly, employment figures within the sector.
Do you think non-food retailers within the industry will be able to match the achievements of food retailers by the end of the next quarter, or is the lack of consumer confidence still too great a concern for most to gamble on?
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