Nearly 15,700 retail jobs have been lost each month since the beginning of the year as coronavirus and enforced store hibernations deal a “hammer blow” to the sector.

So far in 2020, 125,515 jobs have been lost across the retail sector while 13,867 stores have been shuttered, according to the Centre for Retail Research.

Of the jobs lost so far this year 71,578 have been axed through cost-cutting drives across multiple retailers across the sector.

Retailers falling into administration have resulted in 43,381 job losses so far in 2020 while a further 10,566 have been shed through CVAs.

Job cuts at chain retailers with five stores or more totalled 92,917 in the period to August 31, while independent retailers have suffered 32,598 job losses during the same period.

So far this year overall job losses across the retail sector are up 31.5% year-on-year.

The Centre for Retail Research’s director Joshua Bamfield said that “retail was already in crisis before the pandemic.”

Bamfield said: “Covid-19 has been a real hammer blow for retailers, many of which were not in good health before the contagion took a hand. The prospects for many non-food retailers are bleak.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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