The US Retail Sector Faces the Shortage of Workers

In a world where companies are rapidly building their presence on eCommerce platforms, the market of brick-and-mortar dollar stores is still booming.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. announced on September 1 that, starting from October, it will raise the minimum wages for all its employees to $15 an hour.   The pharmacy store chain’s move aimed at retaining and luring more people to work after the COVID-19 outbreak is just one more in a series of similar announcements from other US drugstores. Rival CVS Health announced it would increase the minimum wage to the same amount earlier, but the implementation will not start before July next year. With the nationwide labor shortage brought on by the pandemic, many other companies announced raising wages, including Walmart and Chipotle. “Investing in and rewarding our team members is not only the right thing to do; it’s highly important to retaining and attracting a talented workforce,” said Chief Executive Officer Roz Brewer. Currently, about half of Walgreens’s 190,000 employees are already earning $15 an hour, but the starting wage stands at $10. Walgreens will invest nearly $450 million in the wage increase in the course of the next three years. One-third of the amount will be invested in fiscal 2022.  Walgreens, CVS, Kroger, and Walmart will likely also play a key role in administering booster shots of COVID-19 vaccines. These booster shots are currently available solely to the immunocompromised. Still, if US health regulators give it the green light, the booster dose will likely be available to anyone starting September 20.  President of Kroger Health Colleen Lindholz said in an interview that dedicated workers providing vaccinations would be working in about a hundred of Kroger’s US locations.  Meanwhile, wearing masks, maintaining social distance, and using debit and credit cards for payments instead of cash are still recommended in pharmacies and other stores, even for fully vaccinated Americans. 

Simon Property Group and NorthPark Center are stepping in to help stores fill open job positions as COVID-19 restrictions loosen up, and shoppers start heading back to malls in Dallas, Texas.   With the economy slowly opening up, shopping centers are chipping in to assist their tenants in finding workers by holding job fairs and posting consolidated lists of available positions on dedicated landing pages, mobile apps, and social media accounts.   Simon Property Group, the largest mall operator in the United States, has been organizing virtual job fairs since the global health crisis hit as a courtesy to its tenants. The shopping mall owner has a consolidated list of hundreds of employment opportunities available nationwide. The list can be found on Simon’s website and is searchable by the retailer, state, and shopping center.   Dallas’ NorthPark Center is also promoting job opportunities at the mall on its website and via other digital channels. With positions available at about 80 stores, there’s plenty of choice for job seekers.   Despite these recent efforts, the US still has about 400,000 fewer jobs in retail compared to the prepandemic data. However, based on the most recent State Employment and Unemployment Summary report, the unemployment rate in Texas was 6.7% in April this year, which is nearly a half down from the state’s record-high joblessness rate of 12.9% in April 2020.   While the Texas retail employment rates have almost recovered to pre-COVID levels - approximately 1,322,500 Texans were employed in retail in April in comparison with 1,324,500 in February 2020 - more than 50% of business owners in this sector say that they’re still recruiting. That’s especially good news for high school and college students who may seek out many of the retail job opportunities.   There’s been a significant increase in mall traffic as more people are getting vaccinated against COVID-19. According to March data, foot traffic in US malls went up by 86% compared with the same month last year. Although this is still below March 2019 numbers, there’s an upwards trend and people are not only browsing but also spending more.