Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
The past few years have seen a dramatic shrinking of the availability of retail jobs coupled with a mushrooming of the number of applicants for each one.
So says retail recruitment operator RetailChoice.com, which has been studying thousands of retail job advertisements placed between 2007 and the end of last year.
The company says the impact of the economic downturn on retail employment has been huge. In 2008, over 110,000 jobs were advertised on RetailChoice.com but by 2009 this had slumped by half to 55,000. There was a slight upturn in 2011 to 75,000, but that was still significantly lower than in the first year of the downturn.
At the same time, each job has been chased by far more people. In 2007 an average of six applications were received for each job, but by 2009 this had soared to an average of 23 applicants. Last year, the figure fell slightly to 19 applicants.
“With the continued economic upheaval in the Eurozone and closer to home in the UK it’s unlikely that the jobs market will see a significant improvement in 2012,” warned Neil Brodie, RetailChoice.com commercial director.
“In fact it’s likely we’ll see even more competition for the roles that are available and candidates will need to find a way to stand out.”
RetailChoice.com advises that would-be retail employees with skills in areas such as digital, design and advertising are the most likely to enjoy a premium in terms of salary.
* Don’t forget to check out all the best jobs in the housewares industry on HousewaresLive.net’s continually-updated Jobs Board.
