#Poweredbyjobs: Retail supports one in every four American jobs. Celebrate Careers in Retail Month!
Currently, nearly 860,000 workers feel the Power of a Job in the retail industry, and over 75,000 retail establishments are powered by those jobs. Together, those are great reasons to celebrate Careers in Retail Month for Workforce Wednesday today.
We’re pleased to introduce Renee Sunde, president and CEO of the Washington Retail Association. A veteran in the retail world, Renee understands the industry’s value to Washington employers and workers. The place to connect, she says, is WorkSourceWA.com on the retail industry spotlight.
Here to tell you more about retail is Renee Sunde.
We’re excited to participate in the second Careers in Retail Month this September 2018.
Retail is an important part of every community — big, small, urban or rural. We all experience retail on a daily basis. Although the industry is experiencing massive change and transformation, the growth of retail continues to set pace with the state’s low unemployment rate and strong consumer confidence.
Washington is home to some of the nation’s top retail industry leaders: household names like Starbucks, Nordstrom’s, REI, Costco, Amazon, and the thousands of main street retailers serving our communities, drawing tourists from around the world; Washington state has made an indelible mark around the globe.
What many don’t realize is that retail is the nation’s largest private sector employer, supporting one in every four jobs. And in 2017, Washington retailers produced a $155 billion in taxable sales, or $19 billion in wages.
My personal connection with retail goes back to my college years working at Bellevue Square. Whether serving customers, merchandising or marketing, the skills I learned in those early years taught me many lessons about meeting and exceeding expectations of the people I served. After all, that’s what retail is all about: people.
The industry continues to experience rapid change, and job opportunities continue to evolve. Technology is carving out new career paths with e-commerce, web and application development. The industry offers broad options, from entry-level part-time work to management and executive positions. Today, more retail employers are offering training or tuition assistance to turn a job into a career.
An estimated 51,000 retail job openings are expected to be filled in Washington state by 2021. To begin your exciting career in retail, visit WorkSourceWa.com. If you’re an employer, you can list jobs for free.
As partners in Washington’s WorkSource system and the American Job Center Network, the Employment Security Department helps people — unemployed or not — find new jobs and learn new skills. We help them experience the life-changing Power of a Job. We also work with businesses to help them find employees because we know they are Powered by Jobs.
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Originally published at washingtonesd.wordpress.com on September 12, 2018.
