Jobs & Skills
The retail and wholesale sector is a major reservoir of employment creation in Europe. It offers a wide range of job opportunities.
Retail and wholesale in Europe is a major reservoir of employment creation: one out of five private sector jobs is in retail and wholesale and many other jobs are supported by commerce.
Our sector is also a major source of employment creation. Over the last ten years, over two million jobs have been created in retail only.
The retail and wholesale sector offers a wide range of job opportunities for skilled workers and also for those with fewer qualifications or difficulties in entering the labour market. Companies put into practice training programmes in order to keep pace with technological developments.
Moreover, retail and wholesale offers flexible working time arrangements and thus helps employees achieve a better balance between work and private life.
Key messages:
- Largest employer: As Europe’s largest private sector employer, wholesale, retail and international trade businesses have the potential to create more jobs and wealth. The sector takes on many less qualified workers and those who can find it more difficult to find work, including returning mothers, disabled people and the long-term unemployed.
- Flexibility: The dynamic and rapidly changing nature of the sector, responding to consumers’ changing shopping habits, needs flexible employment policies. Flexible hours suit many shop-workers.
- Investing in people: EU-wide recognition of qualifications and training is vital to workers’ mobility; greater transparency is an important first step. The sector offers training and career opportunities across a broad range of specialisms. Many senior staff started their career on the shop floor.
Healthy workplaces for all ages
EuroCommerce is an official campaign partner to the European campaign 'Healthy workplaces for all ages', which is a two-year campaing coordinated by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work in 2016-2017. It has four key objectives:
- Promote sustainable work and healthy ageing from the beginning of the working life
- Highlight the importance of prevention throughout the working life
- Assist employers and workers (including SMEs) by providing information and tools for managing OSH in the context of an ageing workforce
- Facilitate information exchange and good practices.