REUTERS/Mike Segar
- Thousands of store closures and layoffs have rocked the retail industry over the last decade.
- West Virginia and Ohio are among the states that have been hardest hit by the retail apocalypse in terms of retail job losses, according to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics employment data.
- West Virginia’s retail employment has dropped more than 10% since January 2007.
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The retail industry is undergoing a period of massive disruption amid record-high rates of store closures, layoffs, and bankruptcies.
For many parts of the country, retail employment has started slowly climbing again since hitting recessionary lows between 2009 and 2011.
Washington, DC, for example, has seen retail employment grow nearly 23% since January 2007, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But many states are still struggling to bounce back.
Read more: More than 6,100 stores are closing in 2019 as the retail apocalypse drags on — here’s the full list
We ranked each state by its retail employment levels from January 2007 to March 2019 to find out which states have been hit hardest by the retail apocalypse.
See how your state ranks.
51. Washington, DC: 22.8% retail job growth
Associated Press
50. Utah: 20.2% retail job growth
Julio Cortez/AP Photos
49. Washington: 20.1% retail job growth
Elaine Thompson / AP Images
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
- 10 comically large items you can buy at Costco
- The retail apocalypse has claimed 6,000 US stores in 2019 so far, more than the number that shut down in all of 2018
- These are the most expensive sneakers to be resold in the last year as the sneaker-resale market explodes
SEE ALSO: MOODY’S: JCPenney could close dozens more stores
Source: Business Insider – hpeterson@businessinsider.com (Hayley Peterson)