- The Kronos Retail Labor Index: (This metric is defined as the percentage of job applications that result in a hiring, normalized within a scale of 0 to 100. A level of 3.00 percent means that for every 100 applications received, three hirings occurred). The Kronos Retail Labor Index decreased to 4.10 percent this month, down 2.13 percent (on a relative basis) from 4.17 in April.
- Retail Hiring Level: The 68 retailers representing 27,034 distributed locations across the U.S. that make up the Kronos data sample recorded 58,067 hirings (on a seasonally adjusted basis) in April 2010, an increase of 20.45 percent from the March 2010 seasonally adjusted figure of 49,185. The number was 35.92 percent higher than the 37,211 hirings in April 2009.
- Retail Applications Level: The supply of applications increased by 20.32 percent to a seasonally adjusted level of 1,413,982 in April, a 9.30 percent increase over the 1,282,509 applications processed in April 2009.
- Retail Employee Retention Rate: Employee retention increased in April 2010 as compared to April 2009; employees were 5.79 percent more likely to have a length of service of 60 days or more.
- The education level of applicants is significantly higher now than in the past. In January 2007, for every applicant with more than one year of college education, there were five with no college education. By December 2009, this ratio had changed so that for every applicant with more than one year of college education, there were only three who had none.
Supporting Quotes
- Dr. Robert Yerex, chief economist, Kronos
“The Kronos Retail Labor Index is down slightly this month, a reflection of more applications being processed. While hirings were also up, that increase did not keep pace with the applications received. Not only are more people applying for jobs in retail, but these folks tend to be more educated than in the past with one in three completing more than one year of college education as opposed to one in five just three years ago.”
