Job Losses in Retail Accelerating

The pace of retail job cuts, which increased dramatically after Sept. 11, has accelerated in 2002, and this year’s losses could be the worst in at least two decades as the industry consolidates, according to a new study.

During the first three months of this year, 51,078 retail job cuts were announced, including the 22,000 job losses Kmart Corp. announced after its bankruptcy filing, according to a survey by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., an employment research and recruiting firm.

That is already halfway toward matching last year’s record of 96,741 cuts, Challenger said.

Based on the first-quarter figures, merchants are eliminating an average of 17,026 jobs a month, and John Challenger, chief executive of the research firm, expects that pace will continue, with this year’s total estimated to exceed 200,000.

“This is going to be the year in which retailers come to terms with changes of consumer behavior that was precipitated by the recession,” Challenger said. He said the losses would be the worst since the 1980s.