Pandemic to accelerate retail job losses

The retail sector was already in decline before the pandemic, the Scottish Retail Consortium has warned.
Retail losses are going to get worse in the wake of the pandemic.Retail losses are going to get worse in the wake of the pandemic.
Retail losses are going to get worse in the wake of the pandemic.

Around 13,000 jobs and turnover of £3.48 billion were lost in the retail sector in the five years before the pandemic, with the situation set to get worse, a report has revealed.

In its manifesto for retail, published ahead of the Holyrood elections in May, the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) said the Scottish Government should implement moratorium on new policies for a year after coronavirus is suppressed and create a Scottish Retail Strategy in its next term to help get the industry back on its feet after the pandemic. The retail industry is Scotland’s largest private sector employer, providing almost a quarter of a million jobs.

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The organisation said the figures will worsen as the full impact of 2020 becomes clear, accelerating existing trends of consumers moving their shopping online.

Analysing Scottish Government figures, the SRC said 13,000 retail jobs were lost between 2016 and 2018 while £3.48 billion in annual turnover was lost from the industry between 2014 and 2018. However it claimed that the sector, Scotland’s largest private sector employer – which pays over a fifth of business rates, accounts for one in every eight new firms, and the industry generates £16 million for good causes and charity - has the potential to grow by £2 billion over the next few years.

SRC director David Lonsdale said: “This Holyrood election comes as the industry hits the very apex of the current retail revolution. Covid has accelerated the existing trends in retail: including driving customers towards digital, weakened demand, and put retailers under unparalleled pressure.

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“Last year saw the worst-ever retail sales figures, a six-year peak in shop vacancies and shopper footfall slump by a third; which comes off the back of three years which saw 13,000 retail jobs lost and a £3.48 billion reduction in annual turnover since 2014.”

He added: “Retail was already in a difficult position before 2020 and Covid, with ever high property and people costs combining with complex, intrusive and often contradictory policies exacerbating weak economic growth. The next Scottish Government and MSPs will have to respond to this reality.”

“A more coherent approach to the industry led by a retail strategy which protects ordinary consumers and provides a competitive tax system will provide a framework that can help retail to recover. The choices made by the next parliament come at a pivotal moment for the industry and its 230,000 workers. The right reforms will let retail evolve to play a vital role in the road to economic recovery after Covid. Conversely, if the opportunity is lost then there could be severe consequences for businesses and communities across Scotland."

The manifesto, which also called for more flexible Retail Modern Apprenticeship Frameworks and a collaborative approach between retail and the Scottish Government to tackle environmental issues such as climate change, covers devolved policymaking, business and personal taxation, regulation, skills, retail crime, sustainability, the UK internal market and further devolution.

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