After long slump retail sales are up, but sector is losing jobs by the thousands

For years, the retail sector in Finland has faced a significant slump, resulting in the loss of more than 10,000 jobs last year, with a vast majority of those positions in the retail industry. As the year began, an additional 5,000 jobs were cut, leaving the sector struggling to rebound. Finnish Commerce Federation lobby group forecasts that retail sales will experience over a 2 percent annual growth this year and next, but warns that this growth won't lead to new job creation.

In the first half of this year, retail sales volumes grew by 3.3 percent compared to the same period in 2025. The surge in sales started back in September of the previous year, with department stores, hypermarkets, and interior design shops witnessing the most growth. However, the sector has not kept pace with this growth in terms of employment.

Jaana Kurenoja, the chief economist of the federation, notes that only a small number of retail jobs were created by entrepreneurs and their families. Salaried retail workers, on the other hand, are experiencing a continuous decline in employment. Retail remains the largest employment sector in the private sector, currently employing over 250,000 people in Finland.

Despite the thousands of job losses, the sector still employs a quarter million individuals. The decline in retail employment has been ongoing for over a decade, with a loss of approximately 19,000 jobs since 2015, with nearly half of those positions disappearing in 2025 alone. The federation attributes the job losses to cost pressures, competition from international retailers, and other factors such as digitalization, automation, and artificial intelligence, which have reduced labor requirements, particularly for routine tasks.

Political decision-makers, according to the federation, could help mitigate further job losses in the sector.