Labour market for sales assistants1

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1This report forms part of the analysis of results of the Department of Employment’s research into entry level labour markets. The main report is at:

Key findings

  • There is strong applicant competition for vacanciesand employersreadily filltheir vacancies.
  • Employers of sales assistants rarely require applicants to have any tickets, licences or certification.
  • Consequently, this occupation provides many employment opportunities for first time jobseekers, during standard business hours andon weekends and after hours.
  • Arelatively high proportionof employers are willing to consider employing job seekers without experience.
  • Many vacancies, though,require previous experience (61%).
  • Some employers reject candidates who have limited availability to work the shifts on offer.
  • Applicants who have poor quality applications, or poor personal presentation, communication and customer service skills are unlikely to be shortlisted for interview.
  • Employers also place a strong focus on the personality of candidates. Some undertake group activities as part of their selection processes to identify applicants whose personality fits the business.

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Opportunities

  • Employers are more willing to take on job seekers without experience than those recruiting formost other surveyed occupations.
  • Even a little experience will open up a significant number of sales assistant opportunities.
  • Applicants for sales assistant positions who can demonstrate knowledge of the business and its products or services have a particular advantage.
  • In general, employers do not expect candidates to hold any tickets, licences or certification.
  • This occupation provides many work opportunities for people with school or study commitments, with a large share of employers looking for staff to work on weekends or outside usual business hours.

Barriers

  • Although vacancies may be open to job seekers with no experience, due to the strong competition for vacancies, it is likely that many employers opt for experienced candidates.
  • Competition for vacancies is very strong and applicants need to stand out from the crowd to progress.
  • In addition to lacking experience, candidatesmay find it difficult to break into this labour market unless they have
  • tidy presentation
  • personality traits including being confident, polite and mature
  • good availability and flexibility to work a range of hours.
  • Employers indicate that having a poorly written cover letter (or lacking a cover letter), résumé or application is also a barrier to progressing through the selection process.

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Survey results

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Recruitment outcomes

  • Employers generally recruit sales assistants without difficulty and competition for these vacancies is strong.
  • Employers filled 93% of surveyed vacancies.
  • There was an average of 75 applicants per vacancy.
  • Employers were able to choose betweennine suitable applicants,on average, per vacancy.
  • Around 40% of employers who had unfilled vacancies attracted applicants who could have done the job, but they either
  • found other employment
  • did not exactly meet the employers requirements; or
  • were unable to work the hours needed for the position.

Results at a glance

% of vacancies filled / Average no. of applicants per vacancy / Average no. of suitable applicants per vacancy
Sales assistant / 93 / 75 / 9
All other occupations / 87 / 38 / 7
  • Reflecting the large fields of applicants, nearly one quarter of surveyed employers commented that the applicant they hired exceeded their expectations.

By location

  • A high proportion of vacancies were filled regardless of state or territory, or whether the position was located in a regional or metropolitan area.

Results by state*

*Results for Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory have been excluded due to the small sample size in these locations.

Results by region

% of vacancies filled / Average no. of applicants per vacancy / Average no. of suitable applicants per vacancy
Metro / 93 / 85 / 9
Non-metro / 93 / 45 / 8

Experience and skill requirements

  • Sales assistant vacancies are more likely to be open to job seekers without experience than most other assessed entry level occupations.
  • Around26%of surveyed vacancies were open to people who hadup to six months experience compared with 21% across the other occupations.
  • Around 55% of employers specifically sought applicants who had previous retail experience.

Proportion of employers who would recruit applicants without experience

Level of experience sought (% of employers)

  • There were some variations in the proportion of vacancies filled depending upon the experience level sought.
  • Around 71% of the small number of vacancies that required three or more years of experience were filled compared with 91% of those for which experience was not a requirement.

Personal qualities or attributes sought

  • Given the service-based nature of these roles, most employers were looking for candidates with excellent communication, customer service and interpersonal skills.
  • Employers often mentioned looking for confident and mature minded candidates for their sales assistant roles.

Personal qualities or attributes employers consider necessary (% of employers, multipleresponses allowed)

  • Employers were asked if they expected candidates to have done some research into their business.
  • Many employers recruiting for sales assistants placed particular emphasis on candidates’ knowledge of the business’ products and services.Employers felt that this demonstrated interest and motivation.
  • Those recruiting sales assistants were more likely than other employers to expect candidates to have done some research (54% compared with 29% for the other assessed occupations).

Training, tickets and licences

  • Sales assistants do not generally require qualifications, tickets or licences.
  • Just 9% of these employers had such a requirement (the lowest proportion of any occupation).
  • The most commonly mentioned were
  • adriver’s licence (5%)
  • aforklift licence (4%), often desirable for positions in hardware or building supplies stores
  • Responsible Service of Alcohol (2%), for positions in liquor stores.
  • While almost all employers provided training for successful sales assistants, it was largely limited to on-the-job training, inductions or
    in-house training.

School leavers

  • Employers hiring sales assistants were the most likely to consider recruiting a school leaver or a school age applicant (55% compared with the average of 42% across all other assessed occupations).

Reasons for unsuitability

  • A large proportion of employers would immediately remove candidates from contention for the position if they
  • did not have the right presentation or grooming to match the ethos of the business
  • they lacked retail experience
  • they have limited availability for shifts.
  • Due to the large number of applicants, employers place significant emphasis on the quality of written applications (including a cover letter, correctly following ‘how to apply’ instructions and addressing the selection criteria).
  • Poor interview performance was also a common reason for applicant unsuitability.

Key reasons applicants were considered to be unsuitable (% of employers, multiple responses allowed)

Methods of recruitment

  • The vast majority of surveyed employers advertised their sale assistant vacancies on Internet job boards (86%).
  • Others common recruitment methods were
  • local and national newspapers
  • word-of-mouth
  • the business website
  • internal recruitment
  • a shop window advertisement.
  • Given the variety of methods used, it is important for job seekers to look for vacancies across a variety of platforms to ensure they are maximising their recruitment potential.
  • Around one third of employers recruiting for sales assistants mentioned that they are often or continuously approached by job seekers looking for work.

Approached directly by applicants over the past year (% of employers)

Recruitment methods (% of employers, multipleresponses allowed)

*Other internet sites’ includes free websites which offer a range of advertising services.

Employment arrangements

  • Most (85%) sales assistant employersrequiredcandidates to work on weekends or outside usual business hours.
  • Two-thirds of employers were seeking to fill sales assistant vacancies on a permanent basis.
  • Slightly more than half of employers advertised full-time sales assistant vacancies (54%), while the remainder offered positions with part-time (27%) or variable hours (13%).

Status of employment (% of employers)

Employment status / %
Permanent employee / 66
Casual employee / 15
Temporary or contract employee / 10
Not stated / 10

Hours of work (% of employers)

Weekly working hours / %
Full-time hours / 54
Part-time hours / 27
Variable hours / 13
Not stated / 6

Data above are from an audit of vacancies.

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Analysis of sales assistant job advertisements

In addition to the telephone survey, an audit was conducted of sales assistant job advertisements on a single major recruitment site. Vacancies for sales assistantswere gathered over the period of a month.

A typical sales assistant advertisement (based on composite data) is below.

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