Trade association Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) has released an analysis that shows around 16,000 retail jobs were lost over the past seven years across the country’s retail industry.

SRC used Scottish Government data covering various areas such as retail turnover, job numbers and shop numbers from 2008 to 2015 for the study.

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Inverclyde and Falkirk have registered a most significant fall in job numbers while Dundee and Glasgow registered a decline, which is worse than the total average of the country. It also noted that only five local authority areas saw a rise in employment.

Lothians and Edinburgh also reported a strong growth in the retail turnover from 23% to 56% over the seven-year period and the overall turnover of the country was up by 9%. Eleven local authority areas reported a decline in retail turnover.

The study also reported that Inverclyde, Perth, and Kinross have seen a huge number of store closures while Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Glasgow saw fewer shop closures than the country’s average.

“This is leading to new opportunities, with investment in new jobs, more productive and interesting work, and different business models.”

SRC policy head Ewan MacDonald-Russell said: “This analysis demonstrates how retail change is affecting the whole of Scotland, but in very different ways.

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“For some communities, this is leading to new opportunities, with investment in new jobs, more productive and interesting work, and different business models.

“However, we should not be blind to the serious repercussions these changes can have for local communities.

“We are seeing shop closures and job losses, which will reduce retail involvement in some town centres.”

Russell also noted that the government has taken some positive steps such as the commitment to a retail strategy, as well as to limit the rise in the rates poundage to Consumer Prices Index (CPI).