Retail is not losing jobs - says National Retail Federation

ABC News reported that, despite the faster pace of economic growth, the retail sector had shed 49,100 jobs in the past 12 months. But the National Retail Federation seems to disagree.

"Retail job losses appear to reflect broader changes in the economy as more Americans have shifted their spending online and stores close after decades of overexpansion. But the government figures don't tell the whole story. Government statisticians still haven't caught up with the booming growth in e-commerce. In fact, jobs in areas like distribution warehouses where job growth is soaring are counted under the warehouse industry category, not retail. That method excludes 4 million retail jobs, or 20 percent of the retail industry, estimates Mark Mathews, vice president of research development and industry analysis at the National Retail Federation, the nation's largest retail trade group," ABC news reported.

Retailers are also still struggling to find qualified workers. There were 840,000 openings for retail jobs at physical stores in February, more than double the number from February 2013, according to the most recent government figures.

"People have extra money," Andy Challenger, vice president at Challenger Gray & Christmas, a Chicago-based global outplacement firm, told ABC News. "But the jobs in retail are really shifting away from the front of the store to the back like warehousing jobs."

ABC News listed these top factors affecting retail job losses:

• Shift away from physical stores
• Rise of the robots
• Experiences instead of clothes
• Government lags behind ecommerce

Read the full article here.