However, 2016 has been uniquely different from any of the prior nine years I have been in this business. JBCStyle, our global fashion and retail search firm, began in 2006. JBCconnect, our creative and digital search firm, and Janou Pakter, our executive search firm, both began at or around the turn of 2011 into 2012. While some of these elements were potentially present in the recession that we built in 2008, our companies were not necessarily large enough to see or feel them yet. Here are some of the factors you may want to consider for your business for 2017.
Tourism and Contemporary/Luxury Retail Sales
Being afforded the great opportunity to be as large as we are in our niche allows us to look at domestic tourism and retail sales in two regards. First, there are the factual reported numbers, and then there is the personal relationship with hundreds of mid-tier to luxury retailers that rely heavily on us to support their hiring. Both of these indicators have pointed to the same thing in 2016, which is a real and measured slowdown in tourism and retail sales. These slowdowns have had the same immediate impact on retail, and it’s a complementary slowdown in hiring for store level retail and corporate hiring for these retailers.
The Weather
A very mild winter coming into 2016 has also had a measured impact on retail sales and in turn has affected hiring. Coming off what should have been winter here in the U.S. and, specifically, the northeast to only have spring-like and mild conditions our U.S. retailers sales fell dramatically short on sales projections that could have been achieved had the weather been cold and the consumer spending on the necessity that a cold winter demands.
Mature or established staffing firms should be very good at identifying their seasonalities. At my firm, we know within days or weeks when we will have highs and lows in volume. As a result, we were able to prepare for the waves this year.