Labour market for sales assistants1
Key findings
93% of surveyed vacancies
were filled
75 applicants per vacancy
9 suitable applicants per vacancy
Employers seek sales assistants
with the following attributes
 Customer service skills
 Strong communication
skills
 People skills
 Neat personal appearance
 Strong work ethic
 Good attitude
 A commitment to being
punctual and reliable
 Teamwork skills
 Confident and outgoing
nature
 There is strong applicant competition for
vacancies and employers readily fill their
vacancies.
 Employers of sales assistants rarely require
applicants to have any tickets, licences or
certification.
 Consequently, this occupation provides many
employment opportunities for first time job
seekers, during standard business hours and on
weekends and after hours.
 A relatively high proportion of employers are
willing to consider employing job seekers
without experience.
 Many vacancies, though, require previous
experience (61%).
 Some employers reject candidates who have
limited availability to work the shifts on offer.
 Applicants who have poor quality applications,
or poor personal presentation, communication
and customer service skills are unlikely to be
shortlisted for interview.
 Employers also place a strong focus on the
personality of candidates. Some undertake
group activities as part of their selection
processes to identify applicants whose
personality fits the business.
ISBN: 978-1-76028-611-8
1
This report forms part of the analysis of results of
the Department of Employment’s research into
entry level labour markets. The main report is at:
www.employment.gov.au/entry-level-labourmarkets.
Labour Market Research and Analysis Branch
Department of Employment
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Opportunities
Barriers
 Employers are more willing to take on job
seekers without experience than those recruiting
for most other surveyed occupations.
 Even a little experience will open up a significant
number of sales assistant opportunities.
 Applicants for sales assistant positions who can
demonstrate knowledge of the business and its
products or services have a particular advantage.
 In general, employers do not expect candidates
to hold any tickets, licences or certification.
 This occupation provides many work
opportunities for people with school or study
commitments, with a large share of employers
looking for staff to work on weekends or outside
usual business hours.
 Although vacancies may be open to job seekers
with no experience, due to the strong
competition for vacancies, it is likely that many
employers opt for experienced candidates.
 Competition for vacancies is very strong and
applicants need to stand out from the crowd to
progress.
 In addition to lacking experience, candidates
may find it difficult to break into this labour
market unless they have
o tidy presentation
o personality traits including being confident,
polite and mature
o good availability and flexibility to work a
range of hours.
 Employers indicate that having a poorly written
cover letter (or lacking a cover letter), résumé or
application is also a barrier to progressing
through the selection process.
Survey results
Recruitment outcomes
 Employers generally recruit sales assistants
without difficulty and competition for these
vacancies is strong.
o Employers filled 93% of surveyed
vacancies.
o There was an average of 75 applicants per
vacancy.
o Employers were able to choose between
nine suitable applicants, on average, per
vacancy.
 Around 40% of employers who had unfilled
vacancies attracted applicants who could have
done the job, but they either
o found other employment
o did not exactly meet the employers
requirements; or
o were unable to work the hours needed for
the position.
Department of Employment
Results at a glance
% of
vacancies
filled
Sales
assistant
All other
occupations
Average
no. of
applicants
per
vacancy
Average
no. of
suitable
applicants
per
vacancy
93
75
9
87
38
7
 Reflecting the large fields of applicants, nearly
one quarter of surveyed employers
commented that the applicant they hired
exceeded their expectations.
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By location
Experience and skill requirements
 A high proportion of vacancies were filled
regardless of state or territory, or whether the
position was located in a regional or
metropolitan area.
 Sales assistant vacancies are more likely to be
open to job seekers without experience than
most other assessed entry level occupations.
 Around 26% of surveyed vacancies were open
to people who had up to six months experience
compared with 21% across the other
occupations.
 Around 55% of employers specifically sought
applicants who had previous retail experience.
Results by state*
Average no. of applicants per vacancy (RHS)
Average no. of suitable applicants per vacancy (RHS)
% of vacancies filled (LHS)
100%
98%
100
94%
92%
211
93%
225
200
86%
175
75
Proportion of employers who would recruit
applicants without experience
Sales assistants
37%
150
All other occupations
125
(no.)
100
134
(%) 50
118
75
25
75
67
25
7
6
NSW
VIC
9
35
10
9
QLD
SA
WA
AUS
0
*Results for Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian
Capital Territory have been excluded due to the small sample size in
these locations.
Results by region
% of
vacancies
filled
Metro
Non-metro
93
93
Department of Employment
0
25
(%)
50
Level of experience sought (% of employers)
50
29
0
27%
Average
no. of
applicants
per
vacancy
85
45
Average
no. of
suitable
applicants
per
vacancy
9
8
3 years or
more, 4%
Not
stated, 8%
Between 1
and 3
years, 7%
None
required,
37%
1 year or
less, 45%
 There were some variations in the proportion
of vacancies filled depending upon the
experience level sought.
o Around 71% of the small number of
vacancies that required three or more
years of experience were filled compared
with 91% of those for which experience
was not a requirement.
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Personal qualities or attributes sought
Training, tickets and licences
 Given the service-based nature of these roles,
most employers were looking for candidates
with excellent communication, customer
service and interpersonal skills.
 Employers often mentioned looking for
confident and mature minded candidates for
their sales assistant roles.
 Sales assistants do not generally require
qualifications, tickets or licences.
o Just 9% of these employers had such a
requirement (the lowest proportion of any
occupation).
 The most commonly mentioned were
o a driver’s licence (5%)
o a forklift licence (4%), often desirable for
positions in hardware or building supplies
stores
o Responsible Service of Alcohol (2%), for
positions in liquor stores.
 While almost all employers provided training
for successful sales assistants, it was largely
limited to on-the-job training, inductions or
in-house training.
Personal qualities or attributes employers
consider necessary (% of employers,
multiple responses allowed)
Communication skills
37%
Customer service skills
35%
People skills
32%
Reliable, punctual,
responsible
24%
Good personal presentation
School leavers
22%
Teamwork skills
 Employers hiring sales assistants were the
most likely to consider recruiting a school
leaver or a school age applicant (55%
compared with the average of 42% across all
other assessed occupations).
20%
Positive attitude
18%
Work ethic
15%
Other personality traits
14%
Interest, commitment
Reasons for unsuitability
10%
0
25
50
(%)
 Employers were asked if they expected
candidates to have done some research into
their business.
o Many employers recruiting for sales
assistants placed particular emphasis on
candidates’ knowledge of the business’
products and services. Employers felt that
this demonstrated interest and motivation.
o Those recruiting sales assistants were more
likely than other employers to expect
candidates to have done some research
(54% compared with 29% for the other
assessed occupations).
Department of Employment
 A large proportion of employers would
immediately remove candidates from
contention for the position if they
o did not have the right presentation or
grooming to match the ethos of the
business
o they lacked retail experience
o they have limited availability for shifts.
 Due to the large number of applicants,
employers place significant emphasis on the
quality of written applications (including a
cover letter, correctly following ‘how to apply’
instructions and addressing the selection
criteria).
 Poor interview performance was also a
common reason for applicant unsuitability.
Page 4
Key reasons applicants were considered to be
unsuitable (% of employers, multiple responses
allowed)
50
Internet job boards
Other Internet sites
Shop window advertisement
Approached directly by applicants
44%
(%) 25
Recruitment methods (% of employers,
multiple responses allowed)
25%
5%
6%
6%
16% 15% 15%
11% 10%
9%
6%
Business' website
Newspapers
Internal advertisement
Word-of-mouth
8%
19%
0
86%
8%
7%
*Other internet sites’ includes free websites which offer a range of
advertising services.
Methods of recruitment
 The vast majority of surveyed employers
advertised their sale assistant vacancies on
Internet job boards (86%).
 Others common recruitment methods were
o local and national newspapers
o word-of-mouth
o the business website
o internal recruitment
o a shop window advertisement.
 Given the variety of methods used, it is
important for job seekers to look for vacancies
across a variety of platforms to ensure they are
maximising their recruitment potential.
 Around one third of employers recruiting for
sales assistants mentioned that they are often
or continuously approached by job seekers
looking for work.
Approached directly by applicants over the past
year (% of employers)
Not approached
Rarely - Occasionally
Sales assistant
9%
All other occupations
48%
20%
0
Department of Employment
Continuously - Often
36%
39%
25
50
(%)
32%
75
100
Employment arrangements
 Most (85%) sales assistant employers required
candidates to work on weekends or outside
usual business hours.
 Two-thirds of employers were seeking to fill
sales assistant vacancies on a permanent basis.
 Slightly more than half of employers advertised
full-time sales assistant vacancies (54%), while
the remainder offered positions with part-time
(27%) or variable hours (13%).
Status of employment (% of employers)
Employment status
%
Permanent employee
66
Casual employee
15
Temporary or contract employee
10
Not stated
10
Hours of work (% of employers)
Weekly working hours
%
Full-time hours
54
Part-time hours
27
Variable hours
13
Not stated
6
Data above are from an audit of vacancies.
Page 5
Analysis of sales assistant job advertisements
In addition to the telephone survey, an audit was conducted of sales assistant job advertisements on a
single major recruitment site. Vacancies for sales assistants were gathered over the period of a month.
A typical sales assistant advertisement (based on composite data) is below.
Full-time Sales Assistant Wanted
Ongoing sales assistant role for busy clothing store. Will involve weekend shifts. Ideally
seeking a well presented and enthusiastic person with a passion for customer service.
Point of sale experience required, but training may be offered to the right candidate.
Department of Employment
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