Figure 42 Retail Employment 2001

The latter sector, food, accounted for roughly 24% of employment in 2001. It is almost twice as large as general merchandise, including the department stores, wholesale clubs and the small general stores, which accounted for 13% of employment. Clothing and Motor Vehicles retailing are the next most significant sectors at 11% and 9% respectively. Yet, motor vehicle retailing is one of the largest sectors in terms of contribution to total retail sales.

There are a number of statistical definitions of the size of business unit. One distinction is the enterprise, the financial entity. Another is the location or workplace, the place at which activity occurs. Retail enterprises may have several locations. Formal definitions of these concepts are provided in Appendix A.

The next chart (Figure 43), using data on SEPH data for 2004, shows the distribution of retail employees by size of enterprise. This data source is based on payroll records and administrative tax filings from firms. Self-employed workers in the retail sector are excluded. The chart indicates that a large portion (42%) of retail employees is employed by enterprises with 500 or more employees. This reflects the importance of chain employment in the retail sector. It should be emphasized that this chart excludes the small establishments without paid employees which are common in some segments of retailing such as gift and very small convenience stores.

Figure 43 Retail Employment by Size of Enterprise

The next chart (Figure 44), based on the Workplace and Employee Survey (WES), shows the employees by workplace size for 2001. Evaluating the distribution of employment by workplace size shows a much different picture with very few retail workplaces having more than 500 employees.

This, of course, contrasts with other sectors such as manufacturing and hospitals with very significant numbers of employees in a single workplace. Because it is not possible to show detailed sectors in the WES survey, two retail definitions are presented. The first is the standard total retail sector. The second excludes supermarkets which have a very specific retail production function, with large locations with many part-time employees, and is somewhat dissimilar from other store types. This difference is shown by the increased emphasis on smaller workplace sizes in the sample without supermarkets.

Figure 44 Employees by Workplace Size

The retail labour force is dominantly composed of employees rather than self employed workers. The next chart (Figure 45) compares the aggregate labour force and the detailed sectors by class of worker, employed or self-employed. The share of self-employment ranged from an industry average of slightly more than 9% to a high of almost 27% in non-store retailing and 21% in miscellaneous retailing. The latter includes the small gift and hobby stores which might have only self-employed owners and possibly one or two employees. This compares to an all-sector average of slightly more than 12% for self-employment.

Figure 45 Retail Employment Structure 2001

Self employment with paid workers is significant for automotive, furniture, and miscellaneous retailing; indicating sole proprietor businesses including franchises in these sectors.

The next chart (Figure 46) shows the gains in employment that have come for employees. The chart indicates that gains are particularly significant in the full-time labour category. Gains have been particularly strong in the period since 2001. In contrast, self-employment has remained stagnant. In fact, the category without paid help has actually registered declines. The detail, presented in the statistical appendix, indicate that declines are especially noted in the category of self-employed workers without paid help in unincorporated businesses. This likely may reflect the decline of home-based or hobby retailing.

Figure 46 Retail Employment by Class of Worker

The next chart (Figure 47) shows the structure of retail employment in 2004 using the Retail Special Aggregation of sectors.¹² Because the estimates are too small to show, the chart excludes the LFS category of unpaid family workers. The estimate for that category is only 3,000 for total retail. The category, other self employed, essentially includes those self-employed entrepreneurs without paid help. As noted above, this category of employment is particularly associated with the miscellaneous store category and with non-store retailing.

Figure 47 Structure of Retail Employment — 2004

The prevalence of part-time employment in the retail sector is well-known although not as significant as might be assumed. The chart above (Figure 47) shows that full-time workers account for at least 50% of employment in most retail sectors. Because of extended hours, retailers can employ persons wishing to work only a portion of the day and non-standard hours. This provides flexible employment to students, older workers, women or single parents or other workers who may not want full-time employment.

The next tabulation (Figure 48) is based on Census data. It shows the share of employment in the part-time category by sector.

Food and beverage stores have the highest component of part-time work. This is consistent with the relative emphasis on student employment in that sector. Often, part-time workers have only slightly less than the 30 hour-per-week definition of full-time employment.¹³ This is indicated by the fact that the average hours worked in a number of the sectors is relatively close to the all-sector average.