By: Robert Booth
September 12, 2019
A surge in shop closures and the growth of automated retail are forcing tens of thousands of women out of work, according to a study of the economic pain caused by high street decline.
With twice as much UK shopping now online than in 2011 and amid a wave of store closures, about 75,000 jobs as sales assistants or checkout operators previously taken by women have gone in the last seven years. Men lost 33,000 of the jobs over the period 2011 to 2018, but these were offset by increases in roles in warehouses and as delivery drivers which are largely taken by men, according to research by the Royal Society For the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.
The accelerating switch to e-commerce means entry-level shop floor jobs for teenage girls and part-time shop work for older women juggling caring commitments are evaporating.