The Centre for Retail Research has estimated that 24,348 jobs have already been lost this year across insolvent UK retailers.

Many of these have been due to retailers falling into administration after the Coronavirus lockdown suspended trading for several months.

The research also revealed that 31,628 retail jobs are currently at risk of being scrapped, with many bricks and mortar outlets not reopening.

This represents almost 56,000 retail workers who have been impacted by retail administrations, which is already higher than the total of workers impacted by insolvencies in the sector for the whole of 2019.

Last year, a total of 2,051 stores and 46,506 jobs were affected by retail insolvencies.

High street brands like Laura Ashley, Debenhams, Monsoon Accessorize, Cath Kidston and Quiz have all entered insolvency after being forced to close in March.

The Centre for Retail Research stated that a further 15,300 jobs have already been lost at solvent large retailers which are looking to cut costs - last week Harrods, Arcadia and John Lewis all announced job cuts.

Research director Joshua Bamfield commented: “With the tapering of furlough from next month and the scheduled end of the lease forfeiture moratorium in September, the second half of the year could be disastrous for high streets."

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