Nearly 190,000 retail jobs have been lost in the year since the UK entered its first lockdown, with administrations and cost-cutting programmes driving redundancies.
According to data compiled by the Centre for Retail Research, 188,685 retail jobs were cut between March 23, 2020, and March 31 this year.
Of those job losses, 83,725 were attributed to major retailers such as Debenhams and the Arcadia falling into administration, while 11,986 were axed due to CVA restructuring processes.
Alongside these job losses, a further 92,974 roles were lost in cost-cutting programmes undertaken by supermarket chains during the pandemic including Sainsbury’s and Asda.
As well as job losses, the pandemic has triggered 15,153 store closures across the UK to date.
This stark number of job cuts comes as many non-essential retailers gear up to reopen shops from April 12, after getting the green light from Boris Johnson yesterday.
There are currently 600,000 retail workers being supported by the government furlough scheme, up from 200,000 in December 2020.
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