Around 10,000 retail jobs lost since start of 2020
By Caoimhe Toman
Date: Monday 27 Jan 2020
(Sharecast News) - Around 10,000 retail jobs have been lost since the start of the year as the high street continues to struggle, revealed the latest research by the Centre for Retail Research on Monday.
Thus far in January alone, 9,949 lost positions were registered, with a further 1,200 under threat, warned the researcher.
Debenhams, Mothercare and Asda were among the big brands to have closed stores or announced redundancy plans year-to-date.
Those closures and job losses were on top of the 57,000 retail jobs scrapped in 2019.
The effect of Brexit uncertainty on retailers, the rising popularity of ecommerce and the high rates of high street store closures have were the main reasons to blame, said the British Retail Consortium recently.
According to Sky News, a separate report from Altus Group found that owners of retail properties were hoping that 5G wireless technology could be their salvation, by allowing retailers to use augmented and virtual reality to enhance the customer experience, improve stock efficiency and eliminate queues at checkouts.
Executives surveyed by Altus said that in the longer term 5G would create more jobs.
Scott Morey, executive director at Altus Group, said: "5G presents a great opportunity for retailers to further improve the underlying performance of their physical stores by transforming the customer experience and shifting the role of their store personnel towards higher value tasks."
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