Career trajectories in retail and wholesale : a sequential approach

High labor turnover imposes costs on a firm and hinders the accumulation of human capital. In an increasingly competitive market, retaining competent employees is a necessity. To avoid excessive labor turnover, it is necessary to identify which characteristics influence career pathways for employees. Becoming employed and/or staying employed within a certain firm or sector is normally not binary, but rather should be studied as employment-related events within a career trajectory. The combination of the timing and the order of distinct events that form a unique career pathway for an individual can be studied by using sequential analysis. In this paper, we systematically identify the common career paths of individuals who work in retail or wholesale.