More than 70,000 jobhunters want a career in retail: job portal

It exceeded 2019 levels for retail job applications.

After the retail sector was hit in 2020, a job portal site found that over 70,000 jobseekers were applying for retail jobs in the first half of 2023.

FastJobs said this already exceeded 2022’s total number of 68,000 retail job applications driven by border reopening. It is expecting demand to surpass the pre-pandemic level of 82,000 job applications in 2019.

Despite the rise in applications, FastJobs noted that there is a lack of competitive landscape.

It quoted the Singapore Retailers Association (SRA), which said some local retail firms, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), still have difficulty filling open roles. 

Whilst pay, the nature of the job and company culture also contribute to this issue, a key factor is that many companies have not paid much attention to their employer branding. 
As such, many retailers are not focusing on job seekers.

To address this gap, SRA partnered with FastJobs to roll out a 12-month programme to help retailers get better positions and attract suitable candidates to fill in their shortage of workers.

“The SRA-FastJobs Employer Branding Starter Pack programme will focus on helping retailers improve their branding strategy. The programme includes workshops to help retailers build up their visibility on FastJobs with a company profile page, job ads, and site banners,” read the statement.

Retailers have until 31 May 2024 to apply for the programme, which seeks to back 100 retailers.