- 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 3.80 percent this month, down 9.36 percent (on a relative basis) from 4.10 in May.
- Retail Hiring Level: The 68 retailers representing 27,034 distributed locations across the U.S. that make up the Kronos data sample recorded 46,902 hirings (on a seasonally adjusted basis) in May 2010, a decrease of 22.45 percent from the April 2010 seasonally adjusted figure of 58,067. While a significant decrease from April, the number was 17.18 percent higher than the 38,842 hirings recorded for May 2009.
- Retail Applications Level: The supply of applications decreased by 12.42 percent, to a seasonally adjusted level of 1,238,383 in May, a reversal of the trend seen in prior months. The May 2010 figure represented a 7.44 percent decrease compared with the 1,330,521 applications processed in May 2009.
- Retail Employee Retention Rate: Employee retention increased in May 2010, with employees 3.83 percent more likely to have a length of service of 60 days or more than in May 2009.
Supporting Quotes
- Dr. Robert Yerex, chief economist, Kronos
“The number of hires made by retailers dropped in May, as did the number of applications they received. The drop in hiring was greater than the drop in applications, driving the Kronos Retail Labor Index down again this month.”
- “Long-term unemployment continues to grow with a 354 percent increase over October of 2007, the month in which many economists agree the recession began. This trend has had a dramatic effect on personal income for a growing sector of the population and along with other factors will likely dampen consumer spending for some time, which in turn will have the effect of reducing the need for retailers to hire additional employees.”
