Morrisons and Sainsbury’s Announce Job Cuts 

With what appears like a tidal wave of job cuts, main retailers have been hitting the headlines with new office redundancies.

Morrisons has lately introduced that it was slashing over 200 jobs from its retail individuals workforce, whereas Sainsbury’s is about to chop 3,000 roles by closing its sizzling meals counters and cafes.

Outfitters haven’t been secure both. Widespread trend chain River Island introduced a redundancy programme at its London head workplace, whereas footwear retailer Schuh has launched its personal redundancy and restructuring course of. 

However whereas these cuts primarily goal in-store or workplace roles, distant jobs have been much less affected thus far – doubtlessly displaying a niche in job safety between conventional roles and people tied to the digital financial system.

Why are Morrisons and Sainsbury’s axing extra jobs?

Morrisons and Sainsbury’s newest job cuts come only a few months after axing lots of of roles in 2024.

Morrisons introduced that its newest wave of redundancies can be a part of a cost-saving initiative, whereas Sainsbury’s says its choice was based mostly on “simplifying the enterprise”, including that the majority buyers “don’t use the cafes frequently”. 

In the meantime, River Island’s redundancies stem from its revenue struggles, having reported a pre-tax lack of £32.2 million in October, in addition to a 15% decline in gross sales. Schuh has additionally adopted swimsuit to attempt to navigate difficult financial circumstances and rising prices.

Nonetheless, the rise of Nationwide Insurance coverage Contributions (NICs) for employers is probably going a contributing issue as nicely, including extra strain to already tight budgets. 

Final month, Morrisons CEO Rami Baitiéh referred to as on the Labour authorities to stagger its “avalanche of prices” that companies will face following the Autumn Funds announcement.

“The Nationwide Insurance coverage change provides insult to damage. The issue is that it’s an avalanche of prices that’s coming unexpectedly,” Baitiéh commented. “So I’ve requested them, can we not defer a few of it or go step-by-step, like a health care provider would do – elevating the dose with seven tablets over seven days.”

Are distant groups at decrease threat?

Alternatively, totally distant roles are reported to have a decrease threat of redundancies in comparison with full-time workplace positions. 

In response to analysis from the Startups 100 for 2025 survey, companies that function on a full-time workplace mannequin had a 58% layoff charge – the very best out of every other work mannequin. In the meantime, remote-working companies had a decrease layoff charge of 45% and the next stage of operational streamlining. 

Solely 33% of office-based companies reported implementing streamlining operations to cut back prices, which might counsel that they face extra monetary pressures – similar to enterprise overhead prices related to sustaining a bodily house – thus resulting in additional redundancies.

Distant companies changing into much less frequent

However regardless of analysis suggesting that distant positions are possible safer from job cuts, the variety of totally distant jobs has declined considerably because the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amid the rising variety of firms implementing return to workplace (RTO) mandates, many staff are discovering it tougher to safe totally distant roles. What’s extra, our findings revealed that the variety of totally distant companies had halved inside a 12 months – declining from 32% to 16% from 2023 to 2024.

There are a number of causes for this. First, many firms imagine that returning to the workplace fosters higher teamwork and creativity, whereas some leaders really feel that in-person work is extra productive or important for sustaining firm tradition.

Moreover, leaders in sure industries are extra sceptical about long run productiveness. Excessive-profile CEOs, for instance, have argued that distant setups can result in complacency or hinder innovation.

The rise of hybrid work fashions may very well be a contributing issue as nicely, significantly as 26% of companies opted for this mannequin in 2024 – a 44% enhance from the earlier 12 months.

As job cuts proceed to loom, it’s clear that the job market goes via adjustments. Whereas distant roles seem like safer from layoffs in comparison with workplace jobs, the rise of hybrid work and the push for individuals to return to the workplace are making issues slightly extra unsure.

Rising prices, like the rise in NICs, are forcing companies to make powerful choices, together with chopping workers and altering how they function – making actual job safety tough to search out amid financial uncertainties.