Retail Workers Are Trying to Escape the ‘Merry-Go-Round’ As Jobs Disappear and Prospects Dim

Sue Reich worked for 27 years at Shopko, a Midwest retailer that sold clothing, shoes, housewares, and electronics, until, one day, her employer didn’t exist anymore. Shopko, which employed 14,000 people across 26 states, filed for bankruptcy last year and closed all its stores last summer after it couldn’t find a buyer. The same story is happening across the country as the retail apocalypse continues. In 2019, retailers including Payless ShoeSource, Dress Barn, and Barney’s closed 9,200 stores; Payless alone cut 16,000 jobs. Already this year, chains including Macy’s, Pier 1, and Fairway have announced closures and layoffs. Employment in retail in January was down 8 percent from the same time last year, according to new Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data released Friday morning, at the same time, jobs in transportation and warehousing, industries critical for e-commerce, were up 28 percent. Department stores have shed 241,000 employees in the last five years, according to BLS data, and clothing stores cut 67,000 jobs. Read more at Time.