Market Analysis Essay Sample

Introduction

According to research by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the volume of retail purchases made with the help of smartphones in the US is $70 billion. By the end of 2018, according to analysts, sales are expected to increase to $173 billion. Retail sale via tablets in 2018 will increase by 3 times. Online retailer Amazon.com is recognized as one of the leaders in online trading. Jeffrey Bezos’ company develops many lines of business in different industries. The giant of e-trade, which habitually associated with books, music and video, brought its range of up to tens of millions items. The site sells drills, costume shoes, tennis rackets – almost any product that can be delivered to the consumer. Adult buyers still perceive Amazon as bookseller, but for young people it has become synonymous with the store at all. The company operates internationally, but its headquarters is located in the USA. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics the unemployment rate was recorded at the level of 5.7% in January 2015. Therefore, the company has the ability to attract new employees and increase its reputation again.

Availability of Labor in the Workforce

In the United States a mobile and well-trained labor is formed, which virtually by any indicator meets the level of international standards. National US labor market is a complex dynamic formation, in which there is a significant differentiation of employees in terms of income, employment status, and degree of involvement of workers in social production. A significant advantage of the US labor market is the high social and professional mobility of the workforce that can effectively redistribute it in times of crisis and in the conditions of the restructuring of production. The USA has one of the highest levels of productivity in the world. After comprehensive analysis of the employment situation in the USA it was found that the quantity of working people grew by 759 thousand (from 147,442 thousand in December 2014 to 148,201 thousand in January 2015). In order to have full picture it is necessary to state that total US population is about 319 million people as of the end of 2014. Retail business employment has increased by 46,000 individuals in January 2015 in comparison with the previous month. Out of those employees 9,000 occupied positions in the industry of sporting goods, leisure pursuit, book, and music stores; 8,000 – motor vehicle and parts dealers; and 6,000 employees belong to the non-store vendor. Also, it is worth to mention that the area of specialized and technical services increased by 33,000 occupations in January, together with rises in computer systems design and architectural and engineering services by 8,000 employees in each. Concerning available job vacancies their number rose to 4,427 thousand in December 2014 (by 25,000 from November 2014).

Appropriate Tools for Analysis

In general, the analysis can be expanded by means of functional position analysis and valuation of specialist in the market. This type of analysis is used in assessing the market value of specialists with unique functional duties and responsibilities or complex. It allows the company to define the adequacy of the market value of a specialist and to determine the scope of his search.
As regards Amazon, whose CEO never believed in the possibility of a balance between work and personal life, the appropriate tools to use for forecasting, pricing, and labor market analysis can be interviews with experts of the labor market (human resources representatives, directors, employees, recruiters, etc.); research of statistics from primary and secondary sources; and application of balance method, which allows the company to receive milestones between one-time survey. In addition, the later represents the occurrence, movement and use of labor potential, in particular, the balance of the employed population and its use by industries and sectors of the economy.

References

Schuler, R. S. and Jackson, S. E. (2007). Strategic Human Resource Management. Wiley.
Stone, B. (2013). The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, 1st ed., Little, Brown and Company.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2015). Retrieved from www.bls.gov