Marks & Spencer was recently insisting that it had no plans to cut jobs despite a decision to slash redundancy terms across its workforce by up to 25 per cent.

However today’s Manpower survey confirms what has been obvious from the few retailers that have reported trading updates in the past week. Pressure on costs is growing in the current economic climate and staffing may have to be cut back as a result.

The Manpower survey shows that the employment outlook for the hotels and retail industry is at its lowest level since the first quarter of 1995. Hoteliers are expecting a mild level of hiring activity, suggesting that the gloom is predominantly on the high street.

Cutbacks on staffing can come in all shapes and sizes. Rather than cutting jobs, retailers can re-schedule shift patterns, reduce the number of hours worked by store staff or simply hire fewer temporary workers.

Apart from a management cull in Tesco’s head office earlier this year there have been few big job cut announcements on the high street. These are unlikely until Christmas is out of the way given the critical importance of the festive period to many retailers’ balance sheet.

However Christmas is likely to give an indication of how retailers are feeling. Normally there are big announcements from the likes of Boots and the supermarkets about the need for thousands of seasonal staff. It will be interesting to see how this year’s recruitment drive compares with those that have gone before.

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