Kronos Retail Labor Index™ Shows Cautious Retail Employees Choosing to Stay Put in Current Jobs
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CHELMSFORD, Mass., March 8, 2010 — Kronos® Incorporated today announced the March 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 March 2010 release includes data for February 2010. The report is available on the Kronos Retail Labor Index website.
News Facts
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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 3.26 percent this month up 1.84 percent (on a relative basis) from 3.20 percent for February 2010.
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Retail Hiring Level: The 68 retailers representing 27,034 distributed locations across the U.S. that make up the Kronos data sample recorded 44,113 hirings (on a seasonally adjusted basis) in February 2010, a decrease of 2.22 percent from the January 2010 seasonally adjusted figure of 44,919. The number was, however, 21.03 percent higher than the hirings of 34,834 in February 2009.
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Retail Applications Level: The supply of applications decreased 4.03 percent, to a seasonally adjusted level of 1,348,582 in February, a reversal of the upward change seen in January 2010. The February 2010 figure represented a 10.14 percent increase over the 1,211,891 applications processed in February 2009.
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Retail Employee Retention Rate: Continuing the trend of increased employee retention, employees were 5.67 percent more likely to have a length of service of 60 days or more as compared with February 2009. This is the largest year-over-year increase recorded since 2006. The rate of increase is also at an historic high. These two measures point toward increasing concern on the part of employees as to the health of the job market in the retail sector. They are voluntarily staying on the job longer than any time in the previous four years.
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National Association of Business Economists (NABE) 2010 Economic Policy Conference: Kronos Chief Economist Dr. Robert Yerex will present on The Kronos Retail Labor Index at one of five poster sessions being held at the NABE's 2010 Economic Policy Conference March 7-9, 2010 at the Key Bridge Marriott in Arlington, Va.
Supporting Quotes
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Dr. Robert Yerex, Ph.D., chief economist, Kronos
"Volatility in the level of applications retailers are receiving has increased dramatically over the past six months. As the recession ends and the long, slow recovery begins, potential job applicants begin to look for jobs when they hear encouraging economic reports, but quickly become discouraged and end up staying in their current job. This lack of confidence in the job market is being reflected in the retention rate, which is at its highest point in four years."
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.
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© 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.
Contact
Laura Souza
Kronos Incorporated
+1 978.947.4777
laura.souza@kronos.com