Yorkshire butchers, fishmongers, bakers and tobacconists created a jobs boom before pandemic

The region bucked the British trend by experiencing a growth in retail employment between 2015 and 2019.

New analysis of Office for National Statistics figures by the JPIMedia Data Unit shows that, during that period, the number of retail sector jobs in Yorkshire and the Humber increased by 14,700 to reach 220,000 – a 7.2 per cent rise and the third highest jump in Britain behind the North East and South West.

However, while clothing and footwear and department stores in the region saw an employment downturn of 8.1 per cent and 13.1 per cent respectively, the jobs market at specialist retailers differed starkly.

Jobs in the sale of food, beverages and tobacco in specialist stores doubled from 11,000 to 22,000, in meat selling it went from 2,250 to 6,000 (an upturn of more than 166 per cent), in bread, cakes, flour confectionery and sugar confectionery from 4,500 to 7,000, and fish, crustaceans and molluscs from 225 to 700 (more than 211 per cent).

There were rises in various other categories – in household shops, jobs in specialist hardware, paints and glass stores jumped from 5,000 to 8,000.

Mark Goldstone​, head of business representation and policy at West and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “Whilst this data relates to the pre-crisis economy it emphasises the point that COVID has accelerated some trends which we were already seeing and so it does not really come as a surprise that it suggests it’s the type of retail sales which are being replaced by online shopping which saw the greatest decline in job numbers.

"The rise of targeted advertising and digital marketing has driven changes in shopping behaviour for certain products. In addition traditional high street retail faces the challenges of a regressive business rates system which taxes businesses before any profit has been made.

“It also doesn’t come as a surprise that the specialist sectors saw an increase in employment.

"There are likely to be a number of factors to explain this but as a nation, we have started to question provenance and environmental sustainability following food scandals and a greater understanding of the carbon footprint of products.

"Throughout the crisis there is good evidence that it is local district centres which have benefitted from local restrictions with more of us choosing to buy local, especially products where it makes less sense to buy online or where we are looking for a more experiential type of retail which is difficult to replicate online.”

Other areas of Britain, however, have experienced significant downturns in retail employment.

London faced a decrease of 41,750 such jobs – 10.3 per cent – between 2015 and 2019, with the East and East Midlands seeing a 9.1 and 8.9 per cent drop respectively.

Overall in Britain the decrease was 2.3 per cent – 8.8 in Wales, 4.7 in Scotland and 1.6 in England.

Transport Minister Andrew Stephenson said yesterday that it could take the North “years” to recover from the pandemic.

Frances O’Grady, TUC general secretary, said: “We need urgent and targeted action to save livelihoods in badly-hit industries, like retail, before it’s too late.”

A Government spokesperson said: “We have taken decisive action during the pandemic to support retailers and continue to help businesses and protect jobs through the winter.”