In the Winter 2023-24 issue of The Hayes Report of Loss Prevention newsletter we provided and discussed the 10-year shoplifter apprehension and recovery statistics from our Annual Retail Theft Survey. In this article we will look at the Dishonest Employee statistics over the past 10 years in a similar manner.
Remember, the participants in our Annual Retail Theft Survey are all large retailers with AP/LP staffs dedicated to the prevention of theft (internal and external). Most use EAS, CCTV, EBR (exception-based reporting) software, pre-employment screening tools, and have thorough AP/LP training and awareness programs. While prevention is the key for most all retailers, employee theft apprehensions, which are made as a last resort, continue to rise.
Note 1: Survey participants change slightly from year to year, so “% Change” is based on common participants for that year who also supplied statistics for the previous year.
Note 2: 2020 was *Covid year
Survey Participant Information
Survey Year # Retailers # Stores Retail Sales
35th 2022 26 22,182 $704 Billion
34th 2021 25 22,751 $656 Billion
33rd 2020* 22 18,594 $507 Billion
32nd 2019 21 18,994 $510 Billion
31st 2018 20 13,674 $331 Billion
30th 2017 21 16,409 $428 Billion
29th 2016 23 16,038 $377 Billion
28th 2015 25 21,288 $703 Billion
27th 2014 25 23,250 $703 Billion
26th 2013 23 23,204 $669 Billion
Employee Theft Apprehensions, Recovery Dollars & Average Case Value
Appr $ Recover Avg DE Avg Case
Year + / – % + / – % Case Value Val +/-
2022 + 18.2% + 14.7 $1,136.93 – 02.8%
2021 + 06.0% + 29.8% $1,188.46 + 22.6%
2020* – 20.3% – 17.2% $1,219.61 + 03.8%
2019 – 02.9% + 07.8% $1,380.62 + 11.0%
2018 – 12.7% + 13.5% $1,361.37 +30.1%
2017 – 04.0% – 07.0% $ 966.61 – 03.1%
2016 + 09.9% + 09.3% $ 787.42 – 00.6%
2015 + 00.9% – 04.2% $ 734.16 – 04.9%
2014 + 01.7% + 18.1% $ 825.36 + 16.2%
2013 + 06.5% + 02.5% $ 706.21 – 03.8%
Trends or highlights over the past 10 years include:
- The average dishonest employee case value has been over $1,100 for the past 5 years.
- The average dishonest employee case value has increased 61% over the past 10 years.
- During 7 of the past 10 years the dollars recovered from dishonest employees has increased.
- The number of dishonest employees apprehended has increased in 6 of the past 10 years, with a very large gain (18.2%) in 2022.
- The dollars recovered from those dishonest employees apprehended has increased in 7 of the past 10 years, with two very large gains (14.7% and 29.8%) the past two years. $
