Submitted by: Submitted by nikibm
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Category: Business and Industry
Date Submitted: 11/27/2011 03:49 AM
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Plenty of recruitment cheer for retail
If you thought the high street's days were numbered, the Christmas recruitment drives show no sign of slowing down. Alex Baines reports
What we have seen is that brands that have definite brand identity are more liiiely to thrive hristmas is a time when companies often seek to recruit in large numbers to cope with the pressures of consumer demand. Despite much of the country fearing a double-dip recession, retaĆ¼eis still look to take on additional staff for the festive season. The run up to this Christmas, however, will be particularly harsh this year for retaileiB, with high-street shop closures expected to continue after data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) revealed a drve in consumer spending over August. The Markit/CIPS Purchasing Managers' Index showed services activity fell from 55.4 in July to 51.1 in August [areading above 50 signifies growth]. The drop was the worst for the services sector, whrch makes up around 75% of the total economy since the foot and mouth crisis of 2001 and was greater than drops following the collapse of Lehman Brothers bank in 2008. Christmas recruitment drives are stul percerved by retailers as a necessity and strongly refiect past experience. Sarah Cordey a spokesperson for the BRC, said this supplementary workforce is "inevitable and required, given that retailers do up to 50% of their year's business in the three months over Christmas". Cordey also spoke to Recruiter concerning the BRC's predictions for the performance of the retail sector over the Christmas penod. She described Christmas as very likely to be afflicted with the current ' 'tricky combination of low confidence, low personal finance and high inflation' '. However, she added that previous experience of retailers consistently shows that ' 'people remain determined to enjoy themselves over the Christmas period' ', with heavy extra spending, especially in terms food and...