Retail Is One Of The Biggest Employers In The U.S. And It Desperately Needs Help

COVID-19’s devastating effect on the American retail industry should have U.S. officials on alert. That’s because retail is one of the largest employers in the U.S. In 2018, it included some 15.9 million workers in its ranks, surpassed only by the booming healthcare industry among private employers, depending on how you break up the data. Many of those workers now face uncertain futures, and their job losses could ripple through the U.S. economy. “As long as people are worried where their next check is going to come from or the future of their income, that is going to put a massive dampening effect on the economy and drive it even further into what may look more like a depression than a recession,” says Doug Stephens, founder of consultancy Retail Prophet and author of the forthcoming book Resurrecting Retail: The Future of Business in a Post-Pandemic World. “It’s incumbent on the administration to begin to meet with some of the largest players in the retail industry and to start talking about things like rent forbearance and backstopping that.” Read more at Quartz.