Retail Job Growth (Finally) Sees and Uptick

Retail is hiring again. Slow and steady.

While the latest April jobs report from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) suggests a slowing but still strong labor market, it could be that the retail sector is one of the outliers.

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 175,000 in April, with the unemployment at 3.9 percent. Employment in the retail trade continued to trend up in April, adding 20,000 to its ranks. The DOl said that over the prior 12 months, the retail sector added an average of 7,000 jobs per month. In April, general merchandise retailers added 10,000 jobs.

An iCIMS Insights April 2024 Workforce Report noted slight upticks in applications and openings, with employer and job-seeker activity remaining strong in March. The April report also included a deep dive into the retail sector. Overall, applications per opening (APO) across sectors continued to climb over the last 12 months, with tech-related jobs continue to be in demand as APO rose 45 percent year-over-year. Manufacturing also saw a solid 31 percent growth in APO.

The deeper dive into retail found that “retail employers aren’t hesitating to hire [as staff additions] jumped 10 percent last month.” For job seekers, full-time jobs in retail are in demand, with APO spiking up 50 percent jump year-over-year in March.

Retail employers are seeing more candidates for open positions in the West and Northeast, followed by the South and Midwest. And while sales roles in retail are showing fewer applications versus year-ago levels, transportation roles in retail saw a 45 percent jump in applications in one year. ICIMS said the exponential growth of online retail sales has retailers shifting to meet demand, including hiring drivers to get products onto consumers’ doorsteps. And brands—such as Levi Strauss and Skechers—that are pivoting toward direct-to-consumer sales now also need to rethink their supply chains and last-mile delivery networks.

The expectation that sales roles will decline is due to the pace of store closures. This past January alone, at least 18,517 fashion and retail jobs were believed to be in jeopardy over the next few years, with the majority due to planned store closures as retailer right-sized their store networks. But some brands, such as the reorganization at Hanesbrands to save $15 million, also shed corporate jobs too. And not all staffing cuts are from the lower ranks in the jobs hierarchy. UPS in January laid off 12,000 employees—with 14 percent from the ranks of management—as the logistics firm sought to free up $1 billion in cost savings.

And that 18,517 tally doesn’t include job losses in warehousing, which is expected to be the next wave in cuts as investments in technology and automation kick in.

More retailers are eyeing automated warehousing capabilities. While that has resulted in the shedding of some warehouse jobs, retail over the long term will remain in hiring mode as technology shifts staffing requirements to different roles behind the scenes. Walmart has said that over time, automation will increase the throughput per person, “while maintaining or even increasing [the number of employees] as new roles are created.”

So which are the fashion and retail jobs that could see demand and what are the qualifications sought after by employers? Below is a look at different job categories in fashion and retail, with technology a key theme.

Front-line fashion and retail jobs

While many in-store fashion retailing jobs still adhere to traditional full- or part-time retail models, Natalie Shield, a principal in the leadership, change and organization practice at global strategy and management consulting firm Kearney, expects that the future will include more flexible scheduling. That will accommodate the so-called “gig” models that aren’t yet mainstream in fashion retail, both due to employee desires and retailers’ need to more flexibly manage their workforce.

She also sees the role of stylists evolving, dictated by which generational cohort they are serving and where, whether in-store or online, which may require different levels of technological know-how.

“We saw some of this during the pandemic, for instance with store associates working in a hybrid model, partially as in-store stylists and partially as virtual stylists or providing remote customer assistance, enabled by technology,” Shield said, adding that retailers outside of fashion are providing their store associates with greater access to technology and genAI-powered tools.

“One area where genAI is having the most early impact on roles is in customer service, [such as]—advanced customer self-service tools and truly ‘smart’ chatbots versus in-person or live interactions with employees,” she said, noting that the use of technology will differ based on retail role and consumer group being served.

Corporate headquarters

“People that really understand analytics and AI are the kind of people companies want to hire because they feel that those people can help in terms of better efficiencies,” said Michael Appel, managing director and retail practice leader at Getzler Henrich & Assocs. “At the same time, what you see is that this is very selective. You will see it in marketing, data analytics, and planning and allocation, where [creating] efficiencies will be better for the business.”

Appel said that for retailers, a key corporate concern will be understanding the flow of traffic in the stores. He said knowing that information will help in reallocating staffing hours. The other consideration is how to help the people in the frontline be more productive and what tools will they need to be successful and bring in higher revenues.

“The technology can be anywhere from aiding in choosing the right tag to—using AI—figuring out how much inventory needed at the store, where needed and when,” Appel said.

But Appel also emphasized that AI won’t be the be-all and end-all in how retail is run going forward.

“I think the big misconception is that it’s like AI is going to run everything. Well, that’s not true. AI is a tool that enables companies to more efficiently run their business. But AI is still going to be managed by people. I don’t see that changing,” he said.

Warehousing and logistics

Robert Gorin, a managing director and consumer products practice leader at Getzler Henrich & Assocs., said AI, or what some might call big data analytics, can help companies become more efficient by eliminating stock keeping units (SKUs) that fail to contribute to the bottom line.

As for efficiencies from the analytics, Gorin described a client at a consumer products firm that had 2,200 SKUs. The data analytics Gorin’s team pulled over a five year period included invoices from both vendors and clients that resulted in four million lines of data.

“Of the 2,200 SKUs, 193 were profitable. The rest were at best break-even or lost money,” Gorin said. “Using the same processes, retailers can now take a look at all the assortment mix for a category, such as dresses, and learn what to keep and what to drop from the selling floor.”

Gorin said that what he’s seeing from clients across the board is that they need skilled warehouse staff at all levels. Different skill sets are needed for someone breaking up a product from a supplier and separating the items for shipping to multiple stores, as well as how to handle shipments to stores that contain multiple items across different categories. And Gorin said those skills in packaging and logistics are different from someone working on the direct-to-consumer side who is pulling just one or two items to ship out via UPS.

Supply chain

Communication skills and a growing comfortability using technology are the skills Inna Kuznetsova, CEO of supply chain planning and optimization firm ToolsGroup, foresees a greater need for in fashion retail.

“Broadly speaking, we see a need for better communication skills and the ability to collaborate across the company, even more than managing their own specific role or tasks. Today’s supply chain workers will have to constantly realign with a lot of people in the enterprise, plus brands, suppliers and customers,” Kuznetsova said.

She said the ability to communicate could give rise to the liberal arts major “who’s trained in critical thinking, problem solving, collaborative approaches and good communication” as the future pool that fashion and retail employers could draw from.

As for technology, Kuznetsova said the one essential requirement is that people become “tech comfortable,” not necessarily “tech savvy.” That means getting workers to become proficient faster as workers adapt to a backdrop of teamwork and collaboration where new supply chain roles and skills become omnidirectional. “Companies are looking for supply chain personnel who not only are experienced in supply chain but have the ability to work with other people and understand the overall goals of the organization, with the ability to pivot from how things were traditionally done,” she explained.

She said her firm worked with a company that decided to centralize their supply chain function, going from 50 or 60 people across regions to six people in headquarters doing all the inventory and supply planning. “The remaining teams in the regions are now problem solvers. They’re tracking performance and figuring out why they’re not hitting the metrics. The company is leaning on them more now to analyze and solve problems. This is happening in a lot of places,” Kuznetsova said.

But Kuznetsova also said change won’t be easy as some people may not be able to adapt or would much rather stick with the status quo. While some people can be upskilled, others can’t if they won’t be open to learning new skills.