Kronos Retail Labor Index™ Shows Retail Hiring Continues to Slide

CHELMSFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kronos^® Incorporated today announced the September release of the Kronos Retail Labor Index™, a family of metrics and indices that analyze the relationship between the demand and supply sides of the labor market within the U.S. retail sector, and provide a distinct and early indicator of the overall state of the economy. The September report includes data for August 2010. The report is available on the Kronos Retail Labor Index website.

News Facts

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 increased to 3.4 this month.
Retail Hiring Level: The retailers representing 27,034 distributed locations across the U.S. that make up the Kronos data sample recorded 39,640 hirings (on a seasonally adjusted basis) in August 2010, a decrease of 12.5 percent from the July 2010 seasonally adjusted figure of 45,307 hirings, as well as a decrease of 9.2 percent from the 43,650 hirings that occurred in August 2009.
Retail Applications Level: The supply of applications decreased to a greater degree than did the hirings, by 17.6 percent, to a seasonally adjusted level of 1,160,753 in August, yet another reversal of the trend seen in the month prior. The August 2010 figure represented a significant 21.7 percent decrease from the 1,481,989 applications processed in August 2009.
Retail Employee Retention Rate: Employee retention increased again in August 2010 as compared with August 2009; the percentage of employees remaining on the job 60 days or more was 85.7 percent, an increase of 1.8 percent over July 2010 and 4.3 percent over August 2009.

Supporting Quotes

Dr. Robert Yerex, chief economist, Kronos

“The number of hirings that occurred in August decreased 12.5 percent over the previous month and 9.2 percent over the same month last year. Similar to the previous month, August’s decrease in hiring was smaller than the decrease in applications received, but showed a significant decrease, by 21.7 percent, compared with the applications processed in August 2009.”

“The recent recession has brought about a number of important changes in the U.S. economy, some of which may prove to be permanent, or at least have long-term impacts. As consumer spending became the driving force in economic growth over the past three decades, it follows that the retail sector has, and will continue to see, significant impacts from changes in consumer spending behavior.”

Supporting Resources

Organizations that use Kronos hiring solutions employ approximately 15 percent of the U.S. consumer retail labor market, providing Kronos with a unique set of data on employee job applications, hirings, and length of service.
The Kronos Retail Labor Index is released on a monthly basis. Go to www.kronos.com/retail-labor-index to access: the full report; a schedule of upcoming Index release dates; the Index methodology; and downloadable graphics.
Note to reporters: cite Index findings as “Kronos Retail Labor Index”.

About the Kronos Retail Labor Index

The Kronos Retail Labor Index is a family of metrics and indices that analyze the relationship between the demand and the supply sides of the labor market within the U.S. retail sector. It is derived from a single, unified data set, allowing for statistically appropriate comparisons and time series-based trending analysis. Firms that use Kronos hiring solutions employ approximately 15 percent of the U.S. consumer retail labor market, providing Kronos with a unique set of data on employee job applications, hirings, and length of service. The Kronos Retail Labor Index provides a distinct and early indicator of the health of the retail sector.

About Kronos Incorporated

Kronos is the global leader in workforce management solutions that enable organizations to control labor costs, minimize compliance risk, and improve workforce productivity. Tens of thousands of organizations in 60 countries — including more than half of the Fortune 1000^® — use Kronos time and attendance, scheduling, absence management, HR and payroll, hiring, and labor analytics applications. To learn how Kronos uniquely delivers complete automation and high-quality information in an easy-to-use solution, visit www.kronos.com.

© 2010 Kronos Incorporated. Kronos is a registered trademark and Kronos Retail Labor Index is a trademark of Kronos Incorporated or a related company. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.