Retail outpaces other industries in…

Job losses are piling up in the retail industry amid ongoing store closings.



The retail industry experienced 11,669 job cuts in April, the highest total among all industries, bringing the year-to-date total to 50,133, according to a report released Thursday from global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That is up 36% from the 36,977 retail-sector job cuts announced in the first four months of 2016.



Overall, the pace of downsizing decreased in April, as U.S.-based employers announced workforce reductions totaling 36,602 during the month. The April figure represents a 15% decrease from March, when employers announced 43,310 planned layoffs.



“Although restructuring in the retail sector continues to shed jobs, we aren’t seeing the wide scale layoffs in other sectors, like energy or tech,” said John A. Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.