Hiring on the Rise

 
 
 
 
 
Searching for some good news on the employment front? Look no further. The Kronos Retail Labor Index indicates that hiring in the retail sector has increased.

The Retail Labor Index (RLI), defined as 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 which provide an early indicator of the overall state of the economy, increased to 4.17 percent this month, up from 3.26 percent in March.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the 68 U.S. retailers surveyed recorded 49,185 hirings in March 2010, an increase of 8.89 percent from February and 26.63 percent from the same period in 2009. Moreover, the research shows that the number of applications decreased 16.37 percent in March, continuing a trend that began in January.

Employee retention continued to increase, with workers 6 percent more likely to have a length of service of 60 days or greater last month compared with March 2009.

Kronos chief economist Robert Yerex considers the data “good news for employees looking for a job in retail. In the next 18 to 24 months, we expect to see retail sales and hiring increase, though not to the levels they were in 2008.”