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Facts and figures about the retail sector in Sussex
What is it?
Retail is the UK's top service industry and employs 11% of the UK's working population. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, Retail is the activity of selling goods to the public. It's a flexible, innovative industry with many different jobs in 5 main areas:
- sales floor
- retail management
- buying
- merchandising
- design
source: The Retail Exchange
Facts and figures
- 56,000 people are employed in the retail sector in Sussex. 60% are women and 40% are men
- 5800 establishments in this sector with 98% of them being ’micro businesses’ employing between one and ten people
- number of workers in Sussex has decreased in the last 2 years by 8500
- workers in this sector are more likely to be low skilled (with qualifications at Level 1 or no qualifications) than workers across all industries in Sussex (50% compared with 40%)
- employees are more likely to work part-time (55% compared with 36% for all industries in Sussex)
- the strength of the retail sector is closely linked to the fortunes of the economy overall
source: ABI 2006 / Sussex Enterprise
Employers in Sussex
Large employers include chain stores such as Top Shop, Marks & Spencer, Tesco are represented in Sussex but 98% are micro businesses employing between 1 and 10 people.
Higher education qualifications suitable for the sector
Many of the qualifications taken by workers are vocational such as NVQs but there is an increasing number of University level programmes available as follows:
- foundation degrees such as Retail Enterprise
- undergraduate degrees such as BA Retail Management, BA Retail Marketing
- postgraduate degrees such as MA Marketing
Here we are focusing on higher education but there are many other qualifications and routes to study available including NVQs, Apprenticeships and BTEC awards. Talk to your local college or private training provider about what's available.
Where to study in Sussex
- University of Brighton
- Sussex Downs College
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