35% of retail workers are looking for new jobs, online survey reports

A lot of retail workers are going to be looking for new jobs this year, but not as many as last year, says the latest survey from online job search site CareerBuilders.com. The job site, owned by newspaper publishers Gannett Co. Inc., Tribune Co. and Knight Ridder Inc., reports that 35% of retail workers plan to leave their jobs this year. A year ago, the same survey reported that 47% were planning to leave.

Pay continues to be the biggest issue: 60% of respondents were not happy with their pay, up from 54% a year ago. More than half said they did not receive a raise last year and 84% said they did not receive a bonus.

Two-thirds of retail workers say their workloads have increased over the last six months. 37% felt they were overlooked for promotions in the past and 35% are not happy with career advancement opportunities at their companies, 30% also believe their employers could do a better job with training and professional development.

The reduction from a year ago of retail employees planning to change jobs indicates that employers are taking steps as the economy improves to keep their best employees, CareerBuilder.com says. “Retail companies are investing more in the work culture,” a spokesman says. “The retail career people are staying put. They’ll always be unhappy with salary and the workload, but the companies are changing their cultures and providing things like more flexible scheduling and updated compensation packages.”

Across industries, CareerBuilder.com found that 20-35% of employees are contemplating changes. In addition, CareerBuilder.com says hiring managers are being forced to increase their starting offers. “The tables have turned in favor of the employees,” the spokesman says.

CareerBuilder.com reports it experiences more than 2.5 million job searches in retail every month.

Its survey, "Job Forecast 2006 - Retail," was conducted from Nov. 15 to Dec. 6, 2005. 170 retail workers were selected a random sample of comScore Networks Inc. panel members. CareerBuilder.com says results are statistically accurate to within +/- 7.49 percentage points.