Retail business Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Retail business - Dissertation Example Due to recession, many retail organizations have reduced their workforce, and the employees feel uncertainty in their jobs. 3. People are likely to lose their jobs, especially men and young employees. The effect of global crisis have been felt by people in different ways, depending on the places they live, industry in which they are employed, occupation, and their personal characteristics. This is an indicator for understanding that, recruitment is an expensive process. It means that retail firms will increase the number of employees only if necessary, and they will only recruit when there is any authentic business case. As an alternative, most firms will go for their existing employees working harder, until the situation come under their control. 4. Unemployment rate is greater for males than females (Figure 1) – The unemployment rate to an extent will affect men more because they are more employed in the retail sectors, and so have the chance to experience job losses. 5. Com pared to other sectors in UK, executive salary in the retail sector is so high. In reality, a significant portion of the revenues of UK retail companies are being spent for schemes of employees’ pension and salaries. 6. Unemployment rate increases largely for younger people- The maximum increase in the unemployment rate, was for the population of age group between 18 and 24, as shown in Figure 2 below. Males in this age category have borne the impact of job losses. This will result in unemployment in later life, and they are supposed to earn less in future also. Fig.2: Male and female unemployment rate Fig.3: Increase in unemployment rate by age (Lee et al. n.d.). 7. The global crisis has been reflected in the present patterns of economic slowdown: maximum job losses have been found in ex-industrial areas of UK. 8. One of the main reasons for job losses is the low skill levels of the workforce in UK. Places of population with highly skilled people have experienced less amount of increase in unemployment, and populations with low skill levels have experienced the highest rate of increase in unemployment. 9. Places which depend on financial services employment have not performed well during the time of recession. This is because of the high job losses in retail banking sector, and it tends to be situated outside the capital of UK. 10. Lower Disposable Income- The decrease in the distribution of disposable income was a main challenge for the purchasing activities of the consumers. Decrease in the disposable income has taught the consumer to be more careful in making any purchase. 11. Lower Level of Savings- Inability of the consumers to maintain a sustainable level of savings, have made them focus on two distinct alternatives; one is to continue the same level of consumption pattern by low priced product purchase, or to purchase quality products without cutting the consumption level. 12. Risk of Opportunity Costs- The risk of opportunity costs have made th e consumers more conscious in making their purchase decisions. Purchase decision strategy often depends on the individual preferences of the consumers. 13. Retail banking industry is another area which has faced problems on account of recession. Retail banking carries on banking operations which directly deal with the individuals relatively than other banks or corporations. As the UK retail banking is not controlled by any centralized authority, they are occupied in business practices which are risky to continue in the market. 14. In