What Today’s Unemployment Report Means for Retail

By Brian Dodge, senior vice president, communications & state affairs at RILA

Today’s unemployment data is sure to be the top news story for the next 24 hours. I a little retail detail was in order as well as an explanation why RILA will continue to harp on the need for government to help, not hurt, businesses trying to create jobs.

The retail jobs numbers have been relatively positive over the past year.  Last month, while job growth was uneven across the industry, the net gain was positive. While department stores and general merchandise stores added 19,400 and 15,000 jobs respectively, specialty clothing stores lost 13,600 jobs. In total, 10,500 new retail jobs were created last month. That’s good news and speaks to consumers spending and retailers investing again, but context is important.

The retail industry’s highest level of unemployment was in January of 2008 when the industry employed 15.6 million Americans. Retail employment bottomed out 24 months later in December 2009 at 14.4 million jobs, a net loss of 1.2 million retail jobs. Slow gains since then have resulted in the creation of roughly 380,000 jobs since December 2009, showing a total net loss from the 2008 high of about 830,000 retail jobs.

The chart below shows the trends over the past 4 years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One last point. Next week, RILA will announce its top legislative priorities for 2012. Closing the sales tax loophole that benefits non-store retailers, like Amazon.com, at the expense of brick and mortar retailers is number one. According to today’s data, of the 14.4 million U.S. workers employed in retail, 14 million of them work for stores with a physical presence.

That means the government sponsored loophole helps 2.7 percent of retail workers at the expense of 97.3 percent. Just sayin’… Time to close the loophole!

Retail Industry Leaders Association

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