Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what was the change in the number of jobs in the retail industry between 2023-2024 and 2024-2025; and what assessment he has made of the reasons for the change.

According to ONS data, between 2023-24 and 2024-25, retail employment fell by around 94,800 jobs (-3.3%), from 2.9 million to 2.8 million [1]. This continues a longer-term downward trend in retail employment seen since 2016.

The decline reflects structural shifts (e.g. e-commerce, automation), macroeconomic pressures (e.g. inflation, interest rates), and workforce challenges. In response, DBT is supporting retail transformation through business rates reform, the Help to Grow scheme, and the recently announced Small Business Plan, which aims to tackle late payments, boost access to finance, and remove red tape to help small businesses, including retailers, grow and thrive.

[1] Not seasonally adjusted and were averaged to produce annualised estimates. Self-employment figures are derived from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) JOBS04 tables. LFS has known limitations, including sampling variability and response rate challenges, which may affect precision. Estimates for March 2025 are provisional and subject to revision. Retail is defined as SIC 47 – “Retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles”.