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Behind The Store Front

Prepared for the Retail Council of Canada in partnership with Industry Canada By Jacobson Consulting Inc.

Work Force
The Retail Career

In this section of the report, we will focus on several key aspects of the retail career path:
  • Tenure
  • Turnover
  • Mobility
  • Job satisfaction, and
  • Training.
The next chart (Figure 63) shows the distribution of time in months that an employee had been with the same employer in 2004.

Continuous expansion and the use of part-time employees result in a significant share of employees in the short-tenure category.


  • Figure 63 Structure of Tenure by Sector 2004

    • More detailed data are presented in the statistical appendix in Table 77.

    • 30.3% of employees had been with the same employer for 1 year or less.
    • 31.4% of employees had been with the same employer for 5 years or more
    • 17% had stayed with their employer 10 years or more

    Employee turnover is one of the major challenges for retail employers. The next chart (Figure 64), based on the workplace portion of the WES survey, contrasts the employee turnover estimates for the two retail samples and the all-WES sample. The estimate is calculated from hires and quits at the workplace level.


  • Figure 64 Employee Turnover Estimates

    • Comparing the two retail samples with the ALL-WES-Industries sample indicates increasing turnover across the broad private economy but decreasing turnover in retail. This is true both for the sample with supermarkets and the one excluding supermarkets. Turnover rates are higher in the retail sector compared to the ALL-WES estimate reflecting factors such as the prevalence of part-time and student employment. Unpublished estimates indicate higher and increasing (between 1999 and 2001) turnover rates in Western Canada for both the all industry and retail samples. Lowest turnover is found in Atlantic Canada.

    Turnover is calculated from the workplace perspective. The equivalent concept for employees is mobility, switching employers. The next chart (Figure 65) shows mobility by size of workplace. Generally, employees in larger workplaces were more likely to stay with their employer than those in smaller ones. This chart also presents the analysis by age cohort indicating greater mobility in younger workers. This is not surprising given the emphasis on part-time, possibly student employment. Generally, the results for retail are similar to those for all WES sectors with the exception of the workplace size category 100-499 employees. This is perhaps an anomaly because a similar break in pattern is not seen for the 1999-2000 data. The latter are presented in the Statistical Appendix in Table 79.


  • Figure 65 Worker Retention — Same Employer in 2001 and 2002

    • The next chart (Figure 66) extends the analysis to look at averages by regions. One of the interesting aspects is employees are less likely to remain with their employer in the Prairies whether they are in retail or not.


  • Figure 66 Same Employer in 2001 and 2002 by Region14

    • The next set of charts (Figure 67, Figure 68) addresses the key issues of job and pay satisfaction. Generally, the portion of workers dissatisfied with jobs and pay is remarkably similar in both the retail and the overall estimates. There appears to be slightly more dissatisfaction with pay in the retail group than in the broader all-sector sample.


  • Figure 67 Job Satisfaction 2001


  • Figure 68 Pay Satisfaction 2001

    • Unpublished estimates indicate that the degree of satisfaction increases with job classification. In other words, managers are more likely to be satisfied than production workers. Also satisfaction with both job and pay in retail has declined since 1999. Younger workers (under 25) are the least satisfied of all of the age cohorts. Although causality with respect to satisfaction cannot be attributed to it, it should be noted that the incidence of benefits increases with job classification and age.

    Training is another key aspect of the career path of employees. Training would be expected to encourage employers to retain employees and employees to stay with an employer. The next chart (Figure 69) compares the data for the retail-excluding-grocery sample (RetailXG) for 1999 and 2001 with the all-sector sample for 2001.


  • Figure 69 Training Activities

    • There is a slight increase in the share of employees in the retail sample receiving no training. Other data indicate that younger workers (<25) were more likely to receive training (58.7%) than older workers (45+) (37.3%). Also managers and professionals were more likely to receive training than other workers.

    The next chart (Figure 70) compares the training for the two retail samples for 2001 on the basis of workplace size and employment status.


  • Figure 70 Training by Workplace Size and Employment Status

    • Generally workers in larger workplaces were more likely to receive classroom training than those in smaller workplaces. As would be expected, if they received training, workers in smaller workplaces were likely to receive on-the-job training. There were much less apparent differences in training on the basis of employment status (full- or part-time) than might have been expected. There were only negligible differences between the results for the two retail samples (all retail and retail excluding grocery).

    14Retail data are not available for Saskatchewan.