Cracks appear in a retail landscape where hiring has flatlined

Retailers aren't looking too eager to hire lately. Many are girding for tariffs as sales slow, store closures mount and consumers shop more online.

Retailers aren’t looking too eager to hire as economic uncertainty builds.

The industry shed 6,000 jobs in February, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Friday. The drop was modest, and some of it reflected labor strikes among food and beverage sellers. But the falloff marked a sharp reversal from the month before.

“The declines we’ve seen in retail postings and jobs added have been slow but present,” said Allison Shrivastava, an economist at the job listings site Indeed. “I don’t think we will have big swings or drops, but there could be some slow leaks instead.”

Retailers made 29,500 net hires as recently as January, most of them in the broad “general merchandise” category, but the longer-running trend has been middling. The BLS said Friday that retail employment levels have been basically flat for the past year, despite seasonal ups and downs. ZipRecruiter chief economist Julia Pollak chalked some of that up to e-commerce and automation, “especially the shift to self-checkout,” but acknowledged growing headwinds.

Hiring announcements across the industry fell for three straight years after 2020 before rising again last year, a Retail Dive review of data tracked by the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas recently found. But 2024’s level was still 40% lower than 2019’s.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/retail-stores-hiring-closures-rcna195236

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