Retail employment figures
The latest figures from the BRC-Bond Pearce Retail Employment Monitor reveal that full-time jobs in the UK’s retail sector have dropped by 0.8% or some 5,780, for the third quarter of 2011, compared to the same period last year. By Gavin Matthews, Head of Retail at Bond Pearce.
This is the sharpest quarterly fall the Monitor has recorded since annual comparisons began in October 2009. Taking just the month of September, there were 23,000 fewer jobs compared with the same month last year.
However during the same period the number of retail outlets grew by 2.3%, an additional 1,134 shops, with this growth in the numbers of stores being almost entirely driven by grocery retailers. This reflects yet again the increasing divide between food and non-food retailers. Part-time workers experienced the largest decline in hours worked, reflecting the recent trend suggested by official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Retailers are clearly being battered by the same economic conditions that have led to the highest unemployment rates for 17 years. However retailers are showing their determination to hold on to market share by keeping redundancies low and riding out the storm as best they can.
Seasonal hiring from those parts of retailing that gain significantly from Christmas may provide some respite but this won’t change the underlying weakness in the retail labour market. In fact the research also shows that 54% of the sample indicated that they would increase staffing levels in the run-up to Christmas, but this compares negatively with 61% last year.
The latest unemployment statistics from the ONS showed the number of unemployed rising to 2.57 million, a much larger rise than many economists had anticipated. Youth unemployment continues to be a major concern rising by 74,000 to 991,000 – 21.3% of the economically active in this age group.
Most forecasters are predicting further rises in unemployment, with predictions ranging from 2.6 million to more than three million. The current deficit reduction plan will require further public sector job cuts which will push unemployment higher.
The retail sector, the UK’s largest private sector employer, will continue to play a vital role in creating new jobs in the economy, however, our latest BRC-Bond Pearce Retail Employment Monitor (REM) figures demonstrate that this cannot be taken for granted.
