Nearly 170,000 UK shop workers lost their jobs in 2024
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Collapse of chains such as Homebase and Body Shop contributed to big rise, and another tough year is on the cards. Almost 170,000 retail workers lost their jobs during another challenging year for the UK high street, data suggests. The collapse of big chains such as Homebase and The Body Shop put thousands of jobs at risk and contributed to 169,395 retail jobs disappearing during 2024 – a 42% rise on 2023 levels.
End-of-year figures compiled by the Centre for Retail Research registered the highest annual reading since more than 200,000 jobs were lost in 2020 in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced retailers to shut their stores during lockdowns.
The centre said 38 big retailers went into administration in 2024, with further household names including Lloyds Pharmacy, Carpetright and Ted Baker. Administration accounted for about a third of all 2024 retail job losses – 55,914 in total – with the remainder axed through cost-cutting programmes by large retailers or small independent stores shuttering unprofitable stores.
Retailing jobs form a sizeable portion of the country’s overall job market, with 2.87m roles representing about 8.5% of all UK jobs, according to the most recent figures from the British Retail Consortium. The trade body calculates that retail vacancies are about 30% lower than they were in the period immediately preceding the pandemic. Overall employment appears to have remained relatively steady, with a historical UK average of 2.77m retail jobs between 1978 and 2023, although the population has risen by 13m since the 1970s.
