UK non-food retailers hire more staff in Q1 2015

By

Cajsa Lykke Carlson

Published
Apr 23, 2015

The number of full-time retail jobs in the UK were slightly down year-on-year in 2015's first quarter, falling by 0.1%. However, the equivalent number of full-time employees in non-food retail rose in the period, continuing a steady increase in investment in jobs, the British Retail Consortium said.

The number of stores in the country rose by 1.8% in 2015's first quarter, with both food and non-food retailers contributing to the increase. However, for the 17th month in a row, food retailers cut back on the number of hours employees worked.

Director General of the British Retail Consortium, Helen Dickinson, said: "The equivalent number of full-time jobs remained more or less static in March with a slight fall of 0.1 per cent 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."