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Nigel TAYLOR Published
March 20, 2025
Ahead of an anticipated rise in job losses from this spring, ever-shrinking retail industry employment numbers have gone down by 249,000 in five years and are 70,000 lower than at the same point last year, according to the latest ONS figures.
And if that’s tough to take, news that more than 12,800 UK stores closed in 2025, albeit 1,277 fewer than 2025 figures, although extra costs are expected to take a toll this year, a further study by Greenstreet for the advisory firm PwC suggests.
The latest official UK statistics showed there were 2.88 million jobs in retail in December, traditionally the Christmas-related high point of the year. Across the four-quarter average, there were 1.5 million part-time, down 142,000 on five years ago, and 1.34 million full-time jobs, down 106,000 in a half-decade.
Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive at the British Retail Consortium, said: “The number of retail jobs in 2025 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, again pointed to rises in employer NICs and increased National Living Wage.”
She highlighted a recent survey of retail finance directors that showed half were planning hiring freezes or cutting jobs, both in head offices and stores across the UK.
Dickinson added: “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… 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.”
Meanwhile, the PwC report suggests the rate of store closures is forecast to rise again, also citing the government's tax-raising Budget.
2025's net closures were the second-lowest in a decade – beaten only by 2025 when retail destinations bounced back after the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns.
The study didn’t include specific forecasts for the number of openings and closures for 2025 but predicted that costs, including a rise in the Minimum Wage and extra National Insurance contributions from April, would accelerate the rate of closures.
Kien Tan, a senior retail adviser at PwC, said: “Announcements by retail and hospitality operators over the past couple of months suggest that many of them are being more cautious with their opening plans, partly because of higher operating costs following last year’s budget, which is why openings are likely to slow in 2025. New sites may be less viable.”
Tan said the pace at which units on high streets, retail parks and in shopping centres had become empty “appeared to have stabilised” post-pandemic and that it was now matching the rate at which shopping and services were moving online.
PwC said that, in the long run, the number of stores and services in retail destinations would continue to shrink by 2% a year, let by banks, chemists, pubs and car/motorbike services/dealerships accounted for half of all net chain store closures.
The twice-yearly report using data from Green Street (formerly the Local Data Company), tracks more than 200,000 chain stores in more than 3,500 locations to gain an insight into the changing landscape of high streets, shopping centres and retail parks. However, the report for PwC doesn’t include independent stores, which are tracked separately.