The retail sector reports 3,100 fewer jobs, compared with last year, despite a further 743 shops opening during the three month-period.
It is the first time the BRC-Bond Pearce Retail Employment Monitor has recorded three consecutive months of negative annual jobs growth, with the 0.4% fall equating to 3,100 fewer full-time jobs in the sector. The biggest decline was seen in June, with the equivalent number of full-time employees down 0.7% on the previous year, despite a 4.5% increase in the number of retail outlets.

According to the monitor, the fall in job numbers is heavily weighted towards non-food retailers, with a sharp decline in the numbers of hours worked by full-time and part-time employees in Q2 compared with the previous year. Meanwhile, food retailers continued to increase employment during the quarter.

The situation does not look set to improve going in to Q3, with a quarter of retailers revealing that they plan to cut staff numbers over the next three months. This figure has increased significantly from the 8% recorded last year. The Employment Monitor also revealed that more than half of retailers surveyed plan to keep staffing levels unchanged in coming months.

However, encouragingly, the number of redundancies in the retail sector remains very low, with June recording the lowest redundancy rate since the monitor started in October 2008.