Shopping around for summer employment
It’s a sunny Saturday on downtown Queen Street West, and shoppers line the sidewalks. Strolling past boutiques and larger chain stores, you might spot discreet signs here and there on the corners of window displays.
"Experienced Help Wanted."
"Full-Time Positions Available. Apply Within."
"Hiring Now For Summer."
Major apparel stores Urban Outfitters and American Apparel are hiring. A sales associate at Mexx says they just doubled their team for the summer and are still looking for staff. So are Lululemon and Guess. French Connection, another clothing label, just finished hiring for the summer after seeing a high traffic of job hopefuls.
Although the retail sector is still smarting from economic setbacks, it seems workers are always needed.
"Retail is often the first job people look for when times gets tough," says Paul Jacobson, president of downtown economics firm Jacobson Consulting Inc.
And he approves. Retail is not an export market, so it’s not dependent on another country for profit. He points out the jobs may not pay as much, but large chains provide good benefits and pay store managers well – with some even earning six-figure salaries.
Yet there may not be that many to go around. According to a representative of Monster Canada, an online resource for jobseekers, employment demand is feeble.
"This quarter, from January to March, has seen its lowest sales, and retail is part of it, reaching its lowest points as well," communications manager Robert Waghorn says.
On Monster.ca, online recruitment in national sales and services fell 35 per cent from last year. The numbers in Toronto are at its worst since 2005.
"Canadian employers are continuing to show caution about staffing levels at this time and we are seeing the impact of that across the country in every job category," Peter Gilfillan says on the website’s Monster Employment Index Canada, which tracks employment demand in every business sector.
"The Canadian labour market, as reflected by online recruitment, is continuing to experience a decline in hiring that is a direct reflection of the uncertain economy," says Gilfillan, the company’s senior vice-president of sales and general manager.
Out of the Index’s list of six, Ontario took last place in online job availability during the first quarter of 2009 low rates payday advance. The Prairies were on top.
John Williams, founder of J.C. Williams Group, observes demand is low because of cutbacks and fewer hours.
He and his associates are Toronto-based specialists in retail and market consulting.
The company website posted a National Retail Bulletin earlier this year, which tracked consumer confidence in the retail sector. While Waghorn reports that business picked up during the Christmas season, Williams says spring also brought hope.
"Consumer confidence will increase more in March, as we edge up slowly for the summer," Williams says. He notes discount retailers and the food and beverage market did better than most.
"People will always have to buy things," agrees Jacobson, citing Dollarama and Wal-Mart as successful examples.
Williams and Jacobson see more retail opportunities in the downtown core, as condominiums continue to pop up. "Retail follows people. It always brings in high labour content," says Williams.
Some of Waghorn’s company clients would be welcome in those neighbourhoods – big players such as Home Depot and Goodlife Fitness. Supermarkets and video-game rental stores would also be in demand, and so staff would have to be hired to run them. Grocery store Metro – formerly known as Dominion – in King West’s trendy Liberty Village has been hiring cashiers on a steady basis.
However, some niche businesses would not fare as well.
Hardest hit?
"That would be the stores selling discretional or what you might call frivolous product, like high-end fashion boutiques, jewelers, antiques dealers," says Williams.
"Those purchase decisions are postponable."
A Payless ShoeSource employee organizing the size 5’s on shelves says she was the last person hired, since the beginning of spring. One of the requirements for working there is to be available full-time, not just seasonally.
Jacobson says this is reflective of retail employment demand. According to Statistics Canada’s 2008 Labour Force Survey, full-time retail positions in Ontario dominate, with 492,500 workers compared to 298,700 in part-time.
Filed under: business by Fred