Christmas normally sees more people employed to cover the festove rush, while the four-quarter average showed a drop of 70,000 on the previous year’s numbers
British retail jobs have plummeted by a quarter of a million in the last five years, new data suggests.
Figures from Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that as of December 2024, there were 2.88 million jobs in the retail sector in the UK but that across the year the average had fallen to 2.84 million jobs.
Christmas normally sees more people employed to cover the festive rush, while the four-quarter average showed a drop of 70,000 on the previous year.
Meanwhile, that figure represented a drop of 249,000 on five years ago, putting them at their lowest point since records began in 1996.
The numbers suggest hard times for the industry. Of those job losses on five years, 106,000 were full time.
British Retail Consortium (BRC) CEO Helen Dickinson said: “The number of retail jobs in 2024 was the lowest since the data began in 1996, despite total jobs in the economy continuing to rise. While this decline in retail jobs should be a concern to communities everywhere, worse could be yet to come.
“Last October’s Budget forced retailer wage bills up by over £5bn, and both the rise in employer NICs and increased National Living Wage have made hiring significantly more costly.
“A recent survey of retail Finance Directors showed that half were planning hiring freezes or cutting jobs, both in head offices and stores across the UK.
“Jobs cuts are likely to fall disproportionately on part-time roles. 200,000 part-time jobs have already been lost over the last seven years, and up to 160,000 more part-time roles are at risk in the next three years.
“This matters: flexible retail roles are an important stepping stone for many people, whether it’s a first job out of school or a part-time role for those returning to the workforce or with caring responsibilities.
“As the Government’s welfare reforms aim to increase the numbers in work, flexible retail roles offer a first rung back onto the career ladder.”