News

UNI Europa and Eurocommerce have issued a joint study entitled ‘More and better jobs for young people in the commerce sector’. The study completes a one-year EU funded project that saw both trade unions and employers involved in a debate on how to increase the attractiveness of the sector and improve the availability of a skilled workforce.

The commerce sector is one of the biggest employers in the European Union; in 2010, it provided jobs to 29 million people in Europe, approximately two thirds of them in retail and one third in wholesale. It is closely linked to the local communities and geographical areas in which they operate, but this traditional business is now being challenged by the emerging new forms of shopping and logistics. The commerce sector is at a crossroads, and it needs more skilled young workers.

The study is based on three pillars - “recruitment”, “employment” and “intergenerational approach” and examines problems and sets out solutions and best practices around those.

The main findings are

- Skills and competences of employees constantly need updating and investing in, particularly when it comes to digital competences.
- Common solutions need to be found through tools like the social dialogue and collective bargaining to deal with an increased demand for flexibility, including the rate of involuntary part time and short-term contracts that are pointed out as a major concern by trade unions in many European countries. This trend has accelerated with the emergence of e-commerce and the extension of opening hours of shops.
- More actions are needed to target young people to highlight possible career paths in the sector and also to increase the retention rate in order to increase the sector’s attractiveness. That includes companies’ investments in attracting young people.

UNI Europa and Eurocommerce have identified a number of good practices at both sectoral and company level across many EU countries where the issues highlighted above were translated into concrete policies.

To read the full report, click here