M&S to cut 7,000 jobs

M&S to cut 7,000 jobs

M&S has confirmed plans to axe up to 7,000 jobs across its UK stores.

The losses are to largely affect shop floor workers, while other jobs will be lost in the M&S central support centre and in regional management.

The retailer says it hopes a significant amount of the cuts will be through voluntary redundancy and early retirement.

The job cuts are to take place over the next three months and are in addition to the 950 jobs losses announced by the retailer last month.

M&S said the job cuts come after a “material shift” in trade and added that it hoped to create new jobs in online fulfillment.

The retailer announced that it had made a 30 per cent year-on-year drop in clothing and home sales in the past eight weeks since stores reopened, while its food sales were up 2.5 per cent in the past 13 weeks.