UK retailers suffer ‘historic slide’ in sales amid Covid-19 lockdown – business live

UK retailers suffer ‘historic slide’ in sales amid Covid-19 lockdown – business live

Caterpillar has reported that sales slumped by 21% in the first three months of 2020, as the global economy seized up.. Despite all the bad news this morning, Britain's stock market has just hit its highest level in nearly seven weeks.. A survey conducted by the CBI, which represents UK businesses, found that 71% of retailers saw a drop in sales this month, compared to a year ago.. Retailers reported a steep drop in sales in the year to April - matching the decline in December 2008, marking the joint sharpest fall since the survey began in July 1983.. And every sector of retail reported that sales in April were weaker than a year ago.. Key workers are disproportionately likely to be female, with employed women more than twice as likely to be in this group as employed men.. Workers in shutdown sectors are the lowest paid across the workforce.. Typical pay for workers in shutdown sectors is less than half that of those able to work from home - £348 a week compared to £707 a week.. Those in shutdown sectors are younger - their average age of 39 is four years below the average age of those who