The retail sales volume has slowed this month compared to the same period last year, with staffing levels falling sharply, a survey has found.
volume fell to a balance of 10 percent in the sentiment survey published by the CBI, which had recorded 5 per cent growth the month before.
Retailers also said their headcounts had fallen to the fastest rate since February 2009 and the aftermath of the financial crisis. The survey by the employers group shows that weak sales and more than a year of soaring costs have led to caution among retailers about hiring new staff.
The survey of 123 respondents, 46 of which were retail stores, asked business leaders whether their company s performance on a given metric had increased or decreased and weighted answers based on the size of the company to give a balance between 100 percent and 100 percent, where a positive figure indicates growth.
The first pandemic lockdown has resulted in companies' investments falling at the quickest rate since May 2020.
The recruitment and employment confederation said that the number of job openings for full-time jobs contracted at the fastest rate in more than two years in April, while temporary hires continued to increase.
Retailers still face a challenging trading environment, with firms reporting disappointing sales and fierce inflationary pressures, according to Martin Sartorius, chief economist at the CBI. As a result, they have to reduce their workforce and investment plans. But there were reasons for retailers to be more optimistic, he said: Consumer sentiment has been improving and households energy bills are set to drop from July. The resulting boost to earnings should help to support retail sales going into the second half of this year. UK economist Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics consultancy, said household incomes would benefit from the fall in the energy-price cap announced yesterday and the anticipated slowdown of the pace of price rises in the next few months, but rising mortgage costs and cautious hiring by employers would offset some of the benefits.