Retail recruiters are being buoyed by January’s retail sales figures but this may not last, as sales declined in February.

The BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor in January revealed a total sales increase of 3.2%, whileretail sales fell in February 1.9%, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Simon Whittington, managing director at Quest Search and Selection, told Recruiter: “We’ve noticed that retail clients took the steps to cut costs late last year and early this year. Now that February’s results are marginally less (and it’s not a huge drop) our clients are already leaner and ready. Some grocery clients have said they’re pleased with how sales have held up.

“In March we’ve witnessed a pick up. Most demand is coming from the value sectors and internet-related retail.

“With the cutbacks made over the last four months we are witnessing some pent up demand coming through. It’s not business as usual but recruitment opportunities have increased.

“One impact is that candidates have been much more flexible. Those who were made redundant have been keener to accept roles, and there’s been much less negotiation to push salaries up.”

Stephen Selby, founder at Success Appointments, adds: “When retailers sneeze, we catch a cold, so as recruiters we are always slightly behind the game. We are finding it more buoyant and that might be because figures were not so bad in the early part of the year and we have not got to the point where they are bad.

“There is a definitely a massive lack of confidence in terms of what people want to do with their people. We are expecting it to bounce back down again. We are bouncing along at the bottom at the moment.”