Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
The British Independent Retailers Association’s (Bira) Business Confidence Barometer, which forms part of Bira’s annual Wages Survey, shows 50.8% of independent retailers are feeling ‘anxious’, which is significantly higher than in 2018 (40.83%).
The number of retailers feeling ‘very confident’ showed a decline too, with only 7.1% feeling very confident, which is down on 2018 and 2017 (8.28% and 12.5%).
The Wages Survey is an annual questionnaire of Bira’s membership to gauge how employment costs are affecting their businesses and ascertain how confident they are about the future.
Bira said: ‘Despite the lack of confidence, retailers have been able to increase the number of full-time staff they are employing with 76.2% of respondents employing full-time staff, which is a big improvement on 2018 (53.46%).
‘Wages are also showing some good signs with full-time hourly staff rates at an average of £8.53 per hour: 32p above the current national living wage of £8.21. However, retailers did say that the low basic salary had impacted their ability to attract the right staff.
‘One of the biggest signs that confidence amongst retailers is low is that only 17.3% of respondents said they were currently recruiting. Perhaps this could be accounted for by the increase in retailers being able to support flexible working and therefore more staff are able to be retained? 82.6% of retailers said they were able to accommodate all flexible working requests from staff and 64.3% were also able to offer a pay rise this year; another way to retain staff.’
Bira ceo Andrew Goodacre commented: “Despite the current doom and gloom about retail job losses, the retail industry is still one of the largest employers in the UK, employing three million people. For many young people, it’s their first step into working life and can form a life-long, exciting career for many.
“The government needs to work with retailers to ensure that this industry is still considered to be a worthy career choice, helping businesses to employ the best people.”
Bira ceo Andrew Goodacre
