Retail Employment Flat in August

Employment in the retail sector was stagnant in August, and the overall economy continued cooling, with total nonfarm payroll employment increasing by 142,000 in August and the unemployment rate changing little at 4.2%. Those are the latest figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which attributed much of the job gains to construction and health care.

The bureau’s report consists of statistics from two monthly surveys: The household survey, which measures labor force status, including unemployment, by demographic characteristics, and an establishment survey that measures nonfarm employment, hours and earnings by industry.

Both the unemployment rate, at 4.2%, and the number of unemployed people, at 7.1 million, changed little in August. Both measures are higher than a year earlier, when the jobless rate was 3.8 percent, and the number of unemployed people was 6.3 million.

The total nonfarm payroll employment increase of 142,000 for August was in line with average job growth in recent months but was below the average monthly gain of 202,000 over the prior 12 months.

Among the major industries showing little change were the retail and wholesale trades, mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction; transportation and warehousing, information, financial activities, professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, other services and government.

As to what these statistics mean in terms of the overall economy, they help reinforce the notion that the  United States appears to have dodged a recession, said National Retail Federation Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz in a news release.

Kleinhenz said the “keynote event” in August was Fed Chairman Jerome Powell saying “the time has come” for lower interest rates, and a reduction is widely expected to happen when the Fed meets on rates this month. “Now the guessing game begins on the magnitude and frequency of rate cuts and how far the federal funds rate will be reduced,” he said.

For the rest of the year, employers should keep adding jobs even if at a slower pace than earlier this year, price increases for goods and services seem to be coming under control, unemployment is near historically low levels and the Fed is expected to cut rates at least twice.

“While consumers will continue to be savvy about their purchases, these factors are a welcome development and should support their propensity to spend,” Kleinhenz said.

Click here for more from the labor bureau’s report.