The retail industry suffered job losses in 2017, ending December with a 20% decrease in jobs in the retail trade. There was a lot of job expansion in other industries, with huge growth in construction and hospitality, with retail and utilities being the only to drop. The trend of decreasing retail jobs is being attributed to the ongoing shift to e-commerce sales. Retail posted a net loss of 70,000 jobs in the past 12 months. There was good news this past week for retail in the Home Improvement and Hardware retail sector, as both Home Depot and Lowe’s posted the news they would be providing their full-time employees with up to $1000 bonuses, a result of the tax breaks recently approved.
