Retail contraction has rocked Manhattan. Are the outer boroughs next? Two years of big job losses suggest bankruptcies and foreclosures are inevitable.

Crain's New York reports:

After months of announcements that department stores from Macy’s to Kohl’s would be closing locations, the impact of the transformation underway in retail became clear with the latest job numbers. Retail employment across the country fell by some 30,000 in March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since October, almost 90,000 general merchandise store jobs have disappeared. The inexorable move to online shopping has reached a tipping point.

In New York, the fallout is hitting first in Manhattan but will soon spread to the other boroughs with enormous implications for the future of the city and its workers.

While the overall retail job numbers show only a tiny decline last year, Manhattan has lost almost 9,700 positions since 2014, according to data from the quarterly wages and employment survey crunched by the Independent Budget Office.

Citywide, the sellers one would expect to be hardest hit, including electronic and sporting goods retailers, are indeed losing ground fast. But weakness is showing up in many areas that had been growing. Consider grocery stores, where the expansion of chains like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's added 8,000 jobs just between 2012 and 2015, before falling back in 2016.

Costly New York , in the news.