IELKA: Employment increase by 3.5% in food retail in 2021

The Consumer Goods Research Institute (IELKA) monitors the employment in the food retail trade with a rolling analysis based on the data of EL.STAT. and empirical research in companies in the industry. According to the data of EL.STAT. It turns out that food retail both during the period of severe economic recession and the period of the pandemic is one of the most dynamic sectors of the economy in terms of maintaining and increasing employment in Greece in the period 2010-2021.

Specifically from the processing of employment data provided on a quarterly basis by EL.STAT. It appears that in the period 2000-2021 the food retail trade shows an increase of employment by 57%, in contrast to the rest of the retail trade which shows a decrease of 11%. In practice, food retail in 2021 employs almost 80 thousand more employees compared to 2000, exceeding 220 thousand directly employed.

Specifically for 2021, a significant impact of the pandemic is recorded. The food retailer increased its employment by 3.5% compared to 2020 and by 8% compared to the pre-pandemic level, ie by 13 thousand employees. This trend was reversed with other retail trade showing a decreasing trend in 2021 by 1.8% compared to 2020 and almost by 5% compared to the pre-pandemic level. Due to the increase in the last 6 years of food retail and the simultaneous decrease of other commercial sectors, the food retail employment now represents over 30% of the total retail and wholesale trade, having higher sales than other retail. It is noted that food retail in 2021 represents over 5% of total employment in Greece, surpassing sectors such as Construction, Banking, Transport and Health.

In practice, it appears that food retailers increased their jobs by 7,500 compared to the previous year, bringing the total increase in employment during the lockdown-Pandemic period to 13,000.

This increase in employment in food retail is the result of several factors, the main cause being the pandemic:

– The utilization of new sales channels such as e.g. electronic supermarkets, telephone orders, created the need for additional staff to manage, execute and deliver orders.

– Measures to limit the spread of the pandemic, such as controlling the number of people in stores, disinfection or even the provision of self-tests, etc., have created new jobs.

– The above developments cause a chain of recruitment as they require new additional investments in the organization, computerization and maintenance of the network, in order to increase the productivity of companies, which in turn cause new needs for highly qualified staff.

It should be noted that over time the supermarket staff is one of the competitive advantages of the industry. In the period 2016-2021, according to the data of the annual consumer survey of IELKA, the buying public evaluates very positively the contribution of the supermarket to employment in percentages of 65%. As shown in Figure 3, 93% of the buying public believe that the store staff helps consumers and serves them directly, while 80% have a personal contact-relationship of trust with the staff in the served sections of the store, the butcher shop, the cheeses and cold cuts.

In relation to the quality of employment in the supermarket sector, it is pointed out that supermarket chains offer work to groups of the population most affected by unemployment and face greater difficulties in finding work, such as young people, unskilled workers and women. . It should also be noted the contribution of the industry in tackling unemployment in the province, as long as the sales networks of the chains are not limited to the urban centers or the industrial areas of the country, but cover the whole territory. The staff of supermarket chains is dominated by women in percentages of 65% -70%, while more than 2/3 of the chain stores are active outside the major urban centers of the country.