Employment

Commerce (both retail and wholesale trades), a labour-intensive industry, is among the largest employers the world-over. Informal economy businesses are also overwhelmingly found in retail trade. Within the services sectors, retail trade is often the single largest employer in many countries (with a share of about 20% in total employment in many countries) and is especially critical in providing jobs for women and young people, including those entering the labour market for the first time. It is the leading subsector not only in terms of employment but also for overall value added. Small firms continue to dominate sectoral employment although the ongoing process of capital concentration is leading to a corresponding concentration of employment in fewer firms in many developed and some developing countries. For industrialized countries where private consumption contributes about two-thirds of national economic output, a more modern commerce sector’s share of total employment varies around 16%, two-thirds of it in retailing. Food products capture a fluctuating 40% of commerce employment; clothing 20%, house equipment 13%, and vehicles 10%. Wide differences exist among countries in employment policy and practice, working conditions and industrial relations, reflecting the sector’s heterogeneity.

Employment and working conditions can be highly precarious, due mainly to the predominance of small firms, of cost-cutting and flexibility-seeking strategies by companies. While a core of regular, full-time employees is retained, many retailers utilize contingent labour to fill momentary or intermittent needs or to provide one-time-only services. Growing price and other competition factors in many countries are increasingly pressuring profit margins, encouraging human resource management practices that favour part-time work, uncertain working time schedules, low remuneration, high staff attrition and therefore low training and retraining. In many developing countries, with a less modern commerce sector, there is also a high incidence of non-remunerated work in family enterprises. Women especially accumulate disadvantages; they are often concentrated in retailing with many of them holding lower status, lower-paid, casual jobs.