The growing popularity of online shopping has hit traditional retailers hard, culminating in a spate of retail bankruptcies and store closures in recent years. But according to a new analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the retail apocalypse has actually created nearly as many jobs as it has killed.
But, but, but: Though e-commerce and other non-store retailers have hired nearly as many workers as traditional retailers have cut, these new jobs are much more geographically concentrated. Economists at the New York Fed found that between 2012, when the shift towards non-store retail accelerated, and 2016, 75% of U.S. counties saw a reduction in retail jobs.