Be kind to retail workers. They’re dealing with a lot.
Or at least that’s the gist of a recent study from U.S. News & World Report that ranked 190 jobs to name the best jobs in the U.S. today. Front-line retail employment landed at the very bottom.
A Bloomberg analysis calls the sector the worst to work in, with positions ranking low in salary, job market and future growth potential. Store cashiers were given the second-worst position. According to Indeed, cashiers on average earn about $14.52 an hour. Studies show it takes about $24 per hour before taxes for a family of four in which both adults are working.
A Harvard Business Review report dove into why it’s so challenging for low-earning and under-appreciated workers to move on.
“Fast and flimsy”: defined as companies that bring a lot of employees in with no experience and promote them fast early on (for instance into low-level managerial roles), but do not invest in training, causing employees to quickly stall out.
“Churn and burn”: Companies that fail to provide opportunities to advance or to teach skills, prompting employees to leave quickly.
“Low value add”: Jobs where employees neither advance in their role or in the role that they moved to in their subsequent job, so they jump from an entry-level job at one retailer to the same entry-level job at the next.
Rounding out the top five spots of the list are positions in tech and healthcare sectors including software developer, information security analyst, nurse practitioner, medical and health services manager, and physician assistant.