Smaller shops on Dublin's Grafton Street are having a hard time finding, let alone retaining, full-time staff. "People are just working until they go back to college. We're looking for full-time staff. They say they'll work full-time and then once they get their holiday money they leave or stop turning up," said Peter Murray, manager of Spectra Photo. A full-time position has been advertised in its window for six weeks and remains unfilled.

The opportunity for sales commission and career advancement attract some staff to the retail sector. Sara Falconer, retail sales co-ordinator at Let's Talk Phones, says it offers pooled commission for each shop, commission incentives and sales targets to encourage its staff.

"We don't have a particularly high staff turnover. If they work hard they can do very well for themselves."

Many of the staff have a third level education and may see this as a way to get into sales, she said.

At many well established shops, long-term staff are retiring. "Our older staff are leaving us," said Bally's Grafton Street shoe-store supervisor, Cathy Ennis. The shop had a hard time filling those vacant positions until a recent recruitment drive. "We received a great response," she said.

Multinationals seem to have an easier time recruiting staff. Orla Graham, personnel manager at Marks & Spencer Grafton Street store, said it had heard about retail skills shortages, but had not been affected.

"We've had no problems whatsoever because we have a good reputation and our terms and conditions are very good."

It offers £4.30 an hour for staff without experience and £6 for those with experience. "Over 80 per cent of our staff have experience" when they first apply for a position, she said. Marks & Spencer offers three weeks training, internal promotion and a 15hour per week minimum.

"We have a very low staff turnover of 3 per cent," she said. Ms Graham believes multinationals definitely have an advantage over smaller shops. "If you're a corner shop, you're not going to be able to pay what the multinationals can."