Confidence among retailers to recruit is waning, with most firms (58%) planning to maintain headcount in the next quarter, according to data from the British Retail Consortium.

The BRC-Bond Pearce Retail Employment Monitor (REM) also reveals 38% of retailers plan to decrease staffing levels in the next three months, compared with 13% this time last year.

However in Q4 2010, there were the equivalent of 3,900 more full-time jobs in UK retail than the same quarter a year earlier, up 0.6%, while comparing the three months to December with the same period the previous year, the number of outlets rose by 5.9%, an additional 943 shops.

Stephen Robertson, British Retail Consortium director general, says: “Against an economy-wide background of rising unemployment, retail job numbers were up modestly by 0.6% on the same quarter in 2009. Almost two-thirds of retailers say they will add to or maintain job numbers over the next three months and new stores are still being opened.

“With youth unemployment a major concern, retailers’ largely positive outlook is good news for young jobseekers since a third of retail staff are under 25.

“But December was a difficult trading month for some retailers. Overall, employment growth faltered in December because stores were less busy so there were fewer working hours than the previous year. But there was a sharp contrast between retail sectors. The hours reduction came from non-food retailing while grocery continued to increase employment.”