Stat of the Week: 13,000 Jobs

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statoftheweekICSC RECon, the major national event for the International Council of Shopping Centers, is being held this week in Las Vegas. It is one of the largest annual conferences for real estate professionals and retailers from around the globe to meet to form business relationships. Since New York City is one of the biggest retail capitals of the world, let’s take a look at employment trends in the retail sector for this past year.

The retail sector added 13,000 jobs in New York City year over year through March, and improved on the historical high employment numbers for the city during this time of the year with total retail employees reaching 352,300. This year-over-year change is stronger than the prior year’s growth, with a 30 percent increase in job creation. The 13,000 retail jobs added also mark the second highest yearly gain in March over the past 10 years, second to only the 13,900 jobs added in 2012.

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Food and beverage stores led the way with 3,400 jobs created in the past year, as 76.5 percent of the jobs created were within grocery stores. General merchandise stores added the second most retail jobs in New York City over the past 12 months with 2,500 new employees hired, 72.0 percent within department stores. Health and personal care stores grew as well, with 1,900 employees added to the workforce.

Two retail industries that cut their employee base were clothing stores and sporting goods, hobby, book, and music stores. Clothing stores cut their employment base by 300 jobs for the second year in a row. Sporting goods, hobby, book, and music store retailers cut their workforce by 100 jobs, after adding only 300 jobs the prior year.

Richard Perischetti is vice president of research & marketing at DTZ.