Non-food retailers take on more staff

Non-food retailers are taking on more staff despite a 0.1% fall in the equivalent number of full-time jobs in Q1 compared with the same period last year. 

This is according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Bond Dickinson’s Retail Employment Monitor, which found in Q1 2015 the number of outlets rose by 1.8%, contributed by both food and non-food retailers.

On a monthly basis, March showed the strongest growth in full-time equivalent retail employees, up by 0.7% year-on-year, however the earlier timing of Easter may have distorted growth figures.

This growth in March was supported entirely by the non-food sector while the grocery sector continued to cut back on hours worked by their employees.

Helen Dickinson, director general of the BRC, said: “The equivalent number of full-time jobs remained more or less static in March with a slight fall of 0.1% recorded when compared with the same period last year.

“More conspicuous was how employment in non-food retail continued to recover. Not only were more hours worked across the industry but more people were working in an industry that’s busy meeting higher levels of demand.

“This performance is a result of an increasingly benign economic environment and a further sign that retailers feel more confident about investing for the future. That’s to be welcomed after an extremely tough trading period in recent years.”