Redundancy | How many UK jobs were lost to business administration in 2019?

2019 was a turbulent year for the retail and customer-facing service industry.

Whilst sector-leading industry giants such as Tesla, John Lewis and Debenhams have announced store and plant closures and worker redundancies, others such as HMV, Thomas Cook, Patisserie Valerie and Jamie’s Italian restaurant chain have been forced into administration – putting thousands of jobs at risk, or into redundancy.

The result, according to a new report by ABC Finance, is one of the largest redundancy rates in recent history; a total of 21,876 roles have been terminated. This number is up from 20,881 in 2018, and a drastic increase from just 6,884 in 2017.

Read more from us

Grand tour | HR made worker travel 200 miles for redundancy chat

For context, the administration of Thomas Cook alone resulted in 6,500 job losses. A further 4,000 were lost due to the administration of Debenhams and 2,500 from Mothercare.