HR Benchmark
HR Benchmark Q3 2023
The BRC is running the HR Benchmark survey quarterly to provide retail members with market intelligence for labour planning. Full access to the report is restricted to survey participants, with summary labour market statistics available for non-participant members. For full access to the figures within future HR Benchmark reports, do participate in our upcoming survey round. More than 25 retailers submitted their data to the Q3 2023 benchmark. We greatly appreciate your input. This report covers 550,000 workers, approximately 1 in 6 retail jobs
ONS Labour Market Statistics
Jobs
There were 2.987 million jobs in retail in Q2 2023, a decrease of 77,000 jobs (or a decrease of 2.5%) compared to a year ago and loss of 162,000 compared to Q4 2019 (-5.1%).
Vacancies
Wholesale and retail vacancies numbered 107,000, 11.6% lower than in the period immediately preceding the pandemic and 3.6% lower on the quarter.
Redundancies
In the three months to July, there were 19,000 redundancies in the retail sector, 8,000 more than in the previous quarter and 3,000 more than in Oct-Dec 2019.
Wages
At 8.2% in the year to October 2023, median payroll growth in retail was above the UK average of 5.9%.
Productivity
Retail labour productivity was 1.7% higher on Q1 2023 and 0.7% below the same time last year.