Retailing is identified as a major economic activity and provides employment to more people in comparison to any other industrial sector in Australia. The nature and character of retail in Australia has significantly evolved in Australia through certain technological shifts which tend to range from the utilization of plate glass windows to enhance product and goods display, inspection along with price comparison during the early phase of 19th century to the emergence of advanced technologies in recent times which effectively provides similar consumer services (Price 2016). However furthermore continually adapting to emergent technologies, the Australian retail industry has been revealing high degree of responsiveness to the changing consumer preferences, competitive pressures along with other social and economical forces (Hajkowicz et al. 2016). The Australian retail sector provides contribution to the potency of the Australian economy, by further providing supreme goods, products, services and consumer protection to the Australians. However, it has been observed that throughout the 2012-2013 period, the $250 billion Australian retail sector revealed limited development across all categories. Furthermore, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) retail industry has developed by 3% in comparison to the same time in 2012 (Tyler and Dymock 2017). The following paper explicitly evaluates factors of labour demand and workforce planning in the Australian retail industry by comprehensively understanding labour demand aspects within the industry with employers like Woolworths and Coles Supermarkets operating predominantly within the retail industry.
The retail industry in Australia continues to sustain its thrust, determined by economic and social developments. However, the essential factors significant in the development of retail industry are robust economic development, increasing population and the intensifying purchasing power (Price, Bailey and Pyman 2014). Australia has always been identified as an immensely flexible market along with the sudden decline in retail sector which has been a common phenomenon in Australia. However the overall dimension of the Australian retail sector is estimated to be $120 in 2013 whereby previous year’s declined interest rates have established a reprieved situation to the retail sectors (Luce 2013). However, it has been noted that because of the low interest rates, the obtaining power consumers has been undergoing an increase and thus the condensing retail industry undergoing rapid expansion (Price 2016). The supermarket retail industry in Australia comprises the distinction of being recognized as one of the highly concentrated across the world (Price, Bailey and Pyman 2014). Several significant employers namely Coles and Woolworths have been dominating the Australian retail industry following a series of achievements and expansions by the two significant business enterprises over the past two decades.
It has been observed that Woolworths Limited Group currently has been acquiring around 850 supermarkets in Australia as estimated in 2013, while on the other hand Coles has been noted to own around 761 supermarkets. The Australian retail industry primarily constitutes over 135,000 businesses contributing over 6% of GDP and 10% of total duration of hours worked (Wardle and Chang 2015). As the retail industry is recognized to be immensely diverse in relation to employers’ size, value, product ranges, business structures and formats as well as cost structures (Price, Bailey and Pyman 2014). It has been further noted that the retail industry in Australia has been operating in an progressively dynamic and globalized environment by challenging high level of competitiveness on various platforms and across borders. The Australian Commission report has further evaluated the economic structure as well as performance of the Australian retail industry whereby it has been identified that several input values have increased in order to develop the cost pressures, along with price ranges for major inputs such as labour demand, workforce occupancy increasing at a rapid rate than final retail prices (Richards et al. 2013).
The Australian retail sector has been providing employment to over 1.2 million people. Retail sector being one of the developing profiles comprising almost three-quarters of employees aged under 45 years and over than a third aged comprising 24 years or younger (Bailey et al. 2015). Australian retail sector has been significantly known for employing younger workforce especially in the Accommodation and Food Services sector (Healy 2015). The industry further has been recognized for the vital role it serves in offering provisions to several young Australians by equipping these young talents with greater proficiency which are highly profitable in other industries which includes customer services, collaboration, team work, communication and other conflicting resolutions (Measham et al. 2013). It has further been noted that around 56% of retail workers are women as being evaluated with all industries that is average of 46% along with 50% who have been employed as contractual or part-time labour whereas the average rate of other industries being around 30% (Bruwer and Rawbone-Viljoen 2013).
Furthermore, contractual or casual effective arrangements exhibit a high level of propensity to provide flexibility to its workforce further seeking to accommodate certain degrees of fluctuations in demand. It has significantly been noted that for a major proportion of workers, the areas of opportunity to earn an income during situations of work-life transactions has been stimulating and prominent (Healy 2015). However, the two-dimensional nature of the workforce involving a major section of casual labours with core and essential full-time or equivalent labour force poses challenges for certain skills, talent as well as workforce planning and development (Richards et al. 2013). Observing the rate of employment growth, it has been observed by the Department of Employment anticipates a significant rise in the sphere of retail employment of around 8% in 2017, with an average of around 1.9% per annum which further reveals an anticipated increase of over 103,100 employees. However, it has been observed that over the past few decades, the employment in the Australian retail sector has experienced a rise of annual average of 1.2% annually. Furthermore, the retail industry in the last five years has increased by an average rate of 0.3% annually (Healy 2015).
In the opinion of the Department of Employment, strong employment development is anticipated in a range of retail industry subsectors Retail commission based Purchasing or Selling, Electrical and Electronic Goods Retailing along with Specialized Food Retailing as well as Supermarket and Grocery Stores (Healy 2015). Furthermore, employment in the retail sector has further been anticipated to enhance key retail occupations in the following five years, whereby the Sales Assistants have been anticipated to develop by an average rate of around 2.2% per annum and retail supervisors being anticipated to rise by over 2.5% at an annual rate (Hutchens 2017). Certain reports have revealed unstable and varying employment growth rates for retail industry further relying on factors which scenario tend to eventuate (Bruwer and Rawbone-Viljoen 2013). Further evaluation of Australian retail workforce comparing the prospective labour demand with certain developments in supply from education and knowledge development system however does not necessarily specify any extensive current or medium termed shortages of proficient labourers within the domain of primary and vital occupations (Adams, Parmenter and Verikios 2014). Thus, while retail service outlook for primary retail occupations has been projected to experience moderate growth pertaining to both medium and longer terms, a complex amalgamation of labour has been necessitated in order to aid a diverse series of retail industry models in future, if provided with transitions in technological domain and consumer preferences which tend to redefine the retail industry in Australia (Nickson et al. 2017).
Australian Retail Trade employs approximately 1,360,500 workers comprising both full-time, equivalent and contractual workers, which is anticipated to be around 10.5% of the total labour force (Luce 2013). Furthermore, over the past five years, service rate in the retail industry has risen by 6.3% whereby the median age for employees in the retail industry is around 32 years, whereas the average income of the employees are estimated to be around $930 per week for equivalent employees (Wardle and Chang 2015). It has been observed that new retail roles, well-established e-commerce management along with proficient and skilful labour force are apparently in high demand in the Australian retail market. Hutchens (2017) further reveal that increased rate of jobs have been a major focus on establishing strong management in e-commerce segments with a major section of retailers advancing towards online forum with the same rate as offline stores.
Skills demanded in Retail market
Furthermore, the development in retail labour market stipulates between 2015 and 2017 which further tends to reveal a persistent structural transition towards the highly labour-intensive employment sector. In addition to this, high growth has been evaluated in a wide range of service-centric retail industries. However, it has further been noted that significant declines have been evaluated in wholesale retail business with professional services with a decline of 2% (The Guardian 2018). Moreover, demonstrating the overall establishment in the retail labour market, certain conditions for young employees have apparently strengthened in the last two years (Wardle and Chang 2015). On the other hand, despite of the overall intensification of retail labour market conditions between years 2016 to 2017, a wide range of risks of the labour market outlook tend to persist (Luce 2013). These factors tend to involve a further control of development and growth in some countries such as China as its economy changes and developments shift from investment-driven growth along with uncertainty associated to commodity price range which has been witnessed to have fallen at a significant level from their dominant rates in the year 2012 (Cuervo, Crofts and Wyn 2013).
information to the extent which only permits analysis of the retail industrial market as a whole (Tyler and Dymock 2017).
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that the Australian retail industry comprises of highly identifiable elements of skills and proficiencies. The retail industry furthermore has been recognized for the role it plays in offering provisions to a wide-range of Australians through equipment of talent and skills which are in increasing rate of demand in comparison to other industries. The retail market in Australia in recent times has modified a wide range of innovations and skills, though will necessitate other areas of competencies as well in order to reveal greater degree of agility and talents to address significant areas of challenges and scopes and opportunities which tend to pose challenges due to the ongoing advancements in domains of technology, society and economy. However, the Australian retail sector requires shifting its recruitment profile towards a broader share of labour who perceive retail industry as a potential area of growth.
References
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