By Thomas Barrabi
Women have disproportionately felt the effects of the ongoing “retail apocalypse,” as traditional brick-and-mortar retailers cut jobs and close stores amid sagging sales.
Retailers cut roughly 129,000 net jobs belonging to women from November 2016 to November 2017, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research said, citing U.S. Department of Labor Statistics. Despite that negative trend, men gained 106,000 retail industry jobs over the same period.
The cuts had the largest impact on women working in general merchandise or department stores. Women lost roughly 161,000 jobs in that retail sector from October 2016 to October 2017, while men gained 87,800 jobs. The retail job losses for women mark the longest stretch of declines in the industry since the Great Recession in the late 2000s, the IWPR said.
