More than 60% of retailers don’t plan to hire additional staff for the Christmas and New Year period, a Retail NZ survey has found.
Retail NZ chief executive Carolyn Young said these results – from about 350 respondents to their Retail Radar survey for July to September – were a reflection of the current market.
She told RNZ these businesses faced ongoing pressure, with tight margins, cost-of-living concerns and subdued consumer confidence.
“The reality for retailers right now is they’re looking at their margins, they’re looking at the stock they’ve got to move and they’re thinking, ‘Where can I trim costs or look to be more effective?'”
About 2% of retailers in the Retail Radar survey said they would hire significantly more additional staff; 12% said they would hire, but fewer than last year; and 22% planned to take on a similar number to 2024.
Despite this, retailers’ optimism remained steady, with two-thirds saying they were confident or very confident about the future – a slight increase from 65% in the same quarter last year.
The previous Retail Radar survey, from April to June, found 69% of retailers were confident their businesses would survive the next 12 months – up from 57% in the same period last year.
“Retailers generally are optimistic, right?” Young said.
“This quarter is the most important quarter in retail – it’s where two-thirds of profits for most businesses in retail are made, so you have to be optimistic that that new stock that you’ve got coming in, and the stock you’ve got for Christmas for gifts and things is going to sell, because otherwise, you know, you can’t be in the game.
“The reality shows, when they’re looking to hire more staff, they’re saying, ‘We’re going to hold off on doing anything like that right now, because we’ve just done a restructure or just let some staff go, so we just have to kind of tighten our belts and see our way through’.”
rnz.co.nz
