Retail Hiring Dipped Last Month
Retailers were on the retreat when it came to hiring last month. Official figures revealed Friday that retail employment slid by more than 6,000 last month. Within that, apparel and accessories’ payroll was flat at 1.4 million, while department stores shed 9,000 jobs to employ 1.1 million. The wider U.S. economy added just 20,000 jobs in February, far below Wall Street expectations for a 180,000 increase and the weakest growth since September 2017 when the labor market was disrupted by two major hurricanes, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. As well as retail, the headline number was dragged down by losses in construction and mining jobs, with the former shrinking its payroll by more than 30,000 in February. At the same time, the U.S. unemployment rate slipped from 4 percent to 3.8 percent after the impact of the partial government shutdown fell out of the picture. The high number of furloughed workers had previously pushed up the rate. Some economists suggested that February’s weak numbers could just be a result of a strong January and also impacted by a number of seasonal factors. Brian Coulton, chief economist at Fitch Ratings, said: “This is a big miss in payroll gains relative to consensus expectations butFollow WWD on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.
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