Employment

Employment

In the current economic climate, new and sustainable jobs are particularly important in Hackney. On the Wilmer Place website, they say that the revised proposal will create "up to 150 jobs", but how many does this represent in reality? 

How many full time equivalent jobs?

The employment created as a result of this development would be a mixture of short-term construction jobs during the building phase (which would not contribute greatly to the long-term economic sustainability of the area) and then longer-term retail jobs once the supermarket opened. These retail jobs would be a mixture of part time and full time jobs.

It is impossible to get a realistic idea of the real number of new jobs which could be generated by the supermarket until this figure of “around 150 jobs” is converted into the number of full time equivalent (FTE) jobs. This takes the short term, part time and full time jobs and converts them into an equivalent number of full time positions. For examaple 100 part time jobs employing people for two and a half days per week would be 50 full time equivalent jobs.

How many net jobs for Stoke Newington?

However the jobs created by a new supermarket only tell one small part of the story. The key measure would be the net jobs created due to the arrival of a supermarket in the area. If a supermarket creates 150 jobs but local businesses close leading to the loss of 300 jobs, then the community has lost 150 jobs overall.

The biggest impact would be seen in the more than 60 independent shops that sell the same products that the supermarket would sell. Many of these businesses are already struggling for survival under the economic conditions that we find ourselves in and any loss in footfall to a new supermarket would prove devastating. 

The site itself also has a substantial number of small businesses and live-work units operating there and these will be displaced by the development. As mentioned in the Local Economy section, the developer is under no obligation to assess the impact on net jobs so it is unlikely that they have any idea what the outcome of this development would be on employment in the Stoke Newington community.

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