Challenges related to mental health and staff retention are common in the retail industry and were likely accentuated during COVID-19. This study used questionnaire data from Swedish retail employees (N = 388) to investigate whether job demands and resources differed based on occupational status and a crisis like the pandemic. Mean levels and associations with job satisfaction, turnover intention, and burnout were compared between blue-collar and white-collar employees, before and during the pandemic. Blue-collar employees reported greater physical demands, lower levels of resources, and higher levels of burnout. Job insecurity and emotional demands increased during the pandemic, especially for blue-collar employees. Overall, job demands and resources predicted outcomes in line with previous literature, but job insecurity was particularly salient for blue-collar employees, and autonomy for white-collar employees. Crises like the pandemic affect job demands and resources, potentially exposing lower occupational status employees to a higher risk for negative consequences such as burnout.

The retention of front-line staff in retail has proven challenging. Simultaneously, there are high demands for performance, in a working environment that is often characterized as being detrimental to personal wellbeing. In this paper, we test hindering job demands and job resources as predictors of individual well-being and work-related attitudes and behavior. Retail employees may need to manage their own emotions (emotional dissonance) and can even be exposed to threats and harassment in face-to-face interactions with customers. As a sector with high levels of part-time employment, insecurity around working hours may be an important demand within retail that has not received much attention in previous research. We also consider the role of job resources, namely job control, social support from the supervisor, and possibilities for development. We investigate outcomes related to employees’ well-being (exhaustion), thoughts about leaving the job (turnover intention) and job performance through moderated hierarchical regression analyses with interaction terms. Data was collected cross-sectionally by electronic survey using established measures, in collaboration with a large union that operates in the Swedish retail sector. Emotional dissonance predicted all outcome variables, threats and harassment predicted exhaustion, and worktime insecurity predicted exhaustion and turnover intention. All job resources were significantly and directly related to the outcome variables, but job control showed the strongest negative relation with exhaustion, possibilities for development the strongest negative relation with turnover intention, and supervisory support was a strong positive predictor of job performance. The findings mainly confirm that job demands themselves need to be managed actively, and that job resources have to be present to directly protect wellbeing and performance, and prevent turnover intention. However, evidence for moderating effects of job resources in this sample was weak.

Part-time work is about twice as common in trade as in the general workforce in Sweden. More women than men work part time, and women and men tend to work in different trade sectors. This study first compares psychosocial work environment factors (job demands and job resources), work–non-work interference, and health-related factors between part-time and full-time employed women and men in trade in Sweden and, second, describes their sociodemographic characteristics. Data is from a subsample of trade employees in SLOSH 2022 (N = 730; 49% women; mean age 54 years; 92% permanently employed) with 20% in part-time employment. Part-time employees and women reported lower job resources (job control and skill discretion). Women reported higher emotional demands, work–life interference, and symptoms of depression. It is suggested that increased development opportunities and more varied job tasks could contribute to beneficial outcomes, especially for part-time employees and women, and more functional flexibility for organizations.