Nearly 10,000 UK retail jobs lost in just a month

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jan 27, 2020

January may not be over yet but the under-pressure UK retail sector has already lost 10,000 jobs in 2020, the Centre for Retail Research (CRR) said on Monday.

The actual figure is 9,949 and a further 1,200 jobs are at risk after the failures of department stores chain Beales and toy store Hawkin's Bazaar last week.

It’s unlikely that the pace of job losses will continue this high, however, as January is traditionally a month in which retail businesses go under. That’s an effect linked to whether or not their key Christmas trading period was good and also impending quarterly rent bills.

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There are around 3 million jobs in the UK retail sector overall and CRR said that 143,100 jobs were lost in total last year. A combination of post-Brexit-vote consumer caution, the fast shift to online shopping and even initiatives to encourage consumers to shop more sustainably (or to not shop at all) have been blamed for the devastation.

Apart from the companies filing for administration, a number of other big names selling fashion have also also taken steps that will see them shedding more jobs in recent weeks. They include Arcadia, Debenhams, Asda and Sainsbury’s.