Retail job losses decline but store growth stalls
While the total number of retail job losses fell year on year at the end of 2019, store growth slowed to the lowest level in four years, according to the BRC.
In the fourth quarter of 2019, the total number of retail employees in the UK fell by 1.8% year on year, a lower rate of decline compared with the 2.8% fall during the same period in 2018, according to the BRC Retail Employment Monitor.
It was the 16th consecutive quarter of year-on-year decline and equates to 57,000 job losses between the fourth quarters of 2018 and 2019, if applied to the Office for National Statistics’ retail employment figures.
Store growth for the period was at its lowest since the fourth quarter of 2016, inching up just 0.2%, well below the 2018 comparable of 2.3%.
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