Overview

• There were 2.76 million retail jobs in March 2025, a decline of more than 360,000 since 2015 with nearly 93,000 positions cut in the past year.
• Higher employers’ national insurance contributions, minimum wage increases and a new packaging tax are projected to add around £7 billion to sector costs this year.
• Consumer card spending grew just 1 percent year on year in May, down from April’s 4.5 percent and below the 3.5 percent inflation rate recorded in CPIH.
• Shoplifting offences in England and Wales reached 516,971 in 2024, a 20 percent rise that is driving up security and compliance expenses.
• The British Retail Consortium warns that structural shifts to online shopping could drive a further one in ten retail jobs to disappear by 2035.