Responding to the latest UK Office of National Statistics (ONS) retail job figures for the third quarter 2019, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said though the country added 576,000 new jobs compared to a year ago, there are 36,000 fewer jobs in retail than there were a year ago, making it the sixth consecutive quarter of decline for retail employment.

Kyle Monk, BRC head of retail insights and analytics, said in statement: “Weak consumer demand, rising industry costs and the change in the retail landscape has resulted in this decline. However, while there are fewer jobs in the industry, there is an ongoing transformation towards higher skilled and better paid roles such as in digital marketing, artificial intelligence and data science.”

“The business rate system holds back investment, reduces productivity and increases regional disparities. The Government must fulfil its promise and must review the broken business rates system to relieve the burden on retail businesses and create a system fit for the 21st century. Currently, retail accounts for 5 per cent of the economy, yet pays 10 per cent of all business taxes and 25 per cent of business rates –it is just unsustainable,” he added.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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