Retail sector shed 70,000 jobs in final months of 2018

The Christmas trading season failed to halt the downward trend of Britain’s retail workforce as around 70,000 jobs were lost in the closing months of 2018.

In the final three months of the year, the number of employees in the retail sector fell 2.2% year-on-year, while total hours worked fell by 2.8%, according to the British Retail Consortium’s employment monitor.

Its survey suggested a third of retailers were planning to shed workers in the coming months.

Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said the retail industry is undergoing “a profound change” and that the latest employment data underpins those trends.

She said: “Technology is changing both the way consumers shop, but also the types of jobs that exist in retail. While we expect the number of frontline staff to fall over the next decade, there will many new jobs created in areas such as digital marketing and AI.

“However, this transformation comes at a cost for retailers, who are already weighed down by the increasing costs of public policy, from sky high business rates to rising minimum wage. To support this investment in the future of retail, Government needs to play its part, reforming the broken business rates system to ensure it is fit for the 21st century.”