More than 2.3 million job cuts in 2020 – here’s how retail fared

The retail industry came in third among industries in announced job cuts in 2020. But it also had the highest number of announced hires. 

The retail industry has led all industries in job cut announcements in 2017, 2018 and 2019, according to a report by global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. But it ranked third in 2020, with 184,886 job cuts announcements, which was 139% higher than the 77,475 announced in 2019.

Retail also had the highest number of announced hires this year with 1.183 million of the record 3.191 million hiring announcements tracked this year. (The majority of these hires occurred at grocers in March and April.)

Not surprisingly, the entertainment/leisure sector, which has been devastated by the pandemic and includes hotels, restaurants, amusement parks, and movie theaters, announced the highest number of cuts in 2020 with 866,046, an astounding 5,688% higher than the 14,963 announced in all of 2019. Transportation, which includes airlines, announced the second-highest number of cuts this year with 199,599.

"Retail has been pivoting over the last five to six years, shutting record numbers of brick-and-mortar stores, as consumer behavior shifts online,” said Andrew Challenger, senior VP of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “The pandemic dramatically accelerated this change, with big winners being the retailers with existing online ordering and delivery infrastructure.”