Apple is suddenly trying to hire a bunch of new people for its stores

Apple is suddenly trying to fill a lot of open positions at its stores.

Apple posted 15 job listings for U.S. Apple Stores in the past week. That may not seem like many, but there are certainly more than 15 openings, as the listings are not location-specific - each one is for "various" locations and does not specify a number of spots being filled.

The openings include store leaders, the highest-ranking role at an Apple Store, and one of the few that comes with a salary. 

Other positions Apple include Geniuses, Apple's in-store technicians, and its Apple Store Leader Program, a 24-month program that is designed to train managers. 

See here:

Apple says that there's no problem keeping retail employees. Apple's retail operation posted a 81% employee retention rate in 2015, according to a Fast Company interview with Apple's retail boss Angela Ahrendts published on Thursday:

We just ended the year with the highest retention rates we've ever had: 81%. And the feedback is that it's because they feel connected... I don't see them as retail employees. I see them as executives in the company who are touching the customers with the products that Jony and the team took years to build.

This is the first time that Apple has publicly shared its retention rate for its retail employees as a whole, but in 2012 Apple told the New York Times that its annual retention rate for its Genius roles came in at "almost 90%."

"81% is pretty good for any retail establishment," Stephen Baker, an analyst at NPD Group, which tracks retailers, said. "It's a business with a lot of employee turnover. But Apple Store is not a normal retail business." 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, turnover in the retail sector stands at 5% a month - or 60% annually. 

However, as the economy has picked up, the labor force is getting tighter, and retailers have been pressured to raise wages over the past year as Wal-Mart and other major employers raise their minimum wage. Apple expanded its stock grant program, previously available only to high-ranking executives, to retail employees in 2015. 

Apple declined to comment.

Out of touch?

The retail stores have also undergone a lot of changes under Ahrendts, who took over in May 2014, and this may be fueling some dissatisfaction.

Ahrendts has more closely integrated Apple's online and physical retail operations, and has angled Apple's stores more as a place for users to become familiar with Apple products and the brand than merely a place to buy iPhones. For example, when the Apple Watch first launched, customers could not buy one from the store, although they could book an appointment to try one on.

Some anonymous cranky Apple Store employees on social media took offense to Ahrendts describing them as "executives" in her Fast Company interview. 

 

 

It's not the first time that Ahrendts' attempts to pump up retail workers has hit a sour note. Last summer, she told retail workers gearing up for the Apple Watch launch in a recorded video that "this is what you were born to do."  

Got more information on Apple? Email tips to the author of the post at kleswing@businessinsider.com