I hear that retail employment in the UK, while not amazing when put into perspective of the financial contraction, that things are not too bad. I know that there have been a number of high-profile liquidations like Blacks, but are these happening because of mismanagement or genuine consumer conditions? If you look at the news , other retails are doing fine, take Sainburys for example: bbc.co.uk/news/business-16501871 and Gregg’s: bbc.co.uk/news/business-16503480 – these retailers are doing alright. So I take this whole things about the retail market suffering massively with a pinch of salt. I have had a retail job for many years with a fashion house, but I will be moving soon. In retail, I have worked as a shop assistant initially and then as a store manager for quite a big fashion clothes outlet. While it has been in a fashion job, I never consider this job as a job in fashion, but rather a retail job to be honest. I was looking on a few job sites and when comparing my job to some of the jobs in retail and then some of the jobs in fashion, my job demands are much more in line with that of a retail outlet than fashion.
Anyways, I am looking to move to London because my partner is being re-located to there and we are moving at the end of the month, so I have been on the web and looking for retail jobs in London and noticed that the salaries quite a bit higher. I would say about 10-15% higher. That’s what the job sites are showing at any rate. I know that travel charges are higher and I can see that these are about 5% higher than Manchester, so it gets me wondering why London incomes are so much higher in London than the rest of the country. Is my calculations correct? Are retail jobs in London really earning around 10% more than in Manchester? Is it right, is it because the cost of living there is higher? I would have thought with the number of people working there, that the supply of retail workers would keep the retail salaries across the country pretty even. I looked that the reed employment index and could not find anything useful: reed.co.uk/jobindex. Then the other things about retail jobs in London that worries me, is the level of competition between employees. What are the attitudes of employees there to non-London staff, I mean will I struggle to find a job?
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