12:10am Friday 9th January 2009
By Andy Tate, Parliamentary Correspondent
The grimmest warning of job losses yet has revealed that up to 7,400 jobs could be lost in Brighton and Hove over the next three years.
About one in 20 jobs in the city have been predicted to go before the economy starts to improve in 2011.
Brighton and Hove’s retail and leisure sector - which makes up a quarter of the city’s entire economy and employs more than 33,000 people - could lose up to 40% of its workforce.
The report predicts potentially devastating consequences for the “vulnerable” specialist, independent shops, which may be less resilient to declining sales.
It also urges business leaders to support shops in North Laine and the Lanes.
The report, carried out by the Centre for Cities think tank which regularly offers feedback to Government policymakers, published its findings today.
The estimate is even worse than the 6,500 job losses cited in a draft version of the report last year.
The findings were revealed as dozens of jobs were threatened after women's clothing firm Viyella, which has three stores in Sussex, went into administration.
Retail jobs will also go following Sussex Stationers' decision to shut two branches in the county.
The report’s authors said they adjusted their forecast after it became clear the city would remain in the grip of a deeper recession, suffering job losses over a longer period of time, than previously thought.
A Centre for Cities spokeswoman said the prospects for “severe recession”, during which the British economy contracted by at least 2.5% in 2009, were now looking “increasingly likely”.
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