Wholesale sales of apparel records major drop in Feb

22 Apr '06

4 min read

Alberta, especially, saw no sign of weakening as retailers in this province enjoyed their fifth consecutive increase in February (+1.4 percent).

Albertans were reaping the benefits of a strong provincial economy. In addition to gains in disposable income from the provincial personal rebates issued in early 2006, Albertans also saw large employment gains in February. Wages in this province continued to rise as employers competed for scarce labour.

Ontario's decrease in sales was mainly concentrated in the automotive sector. Besides miscellaneous retailers, who also had a setback in sales, all other retailers in this province increased their sales from January or had no change. This was the first decrease for retail sales in Ontario after four consecutive months of gains.

February's drop in sales for retailers in Newfoundland and Labrador came after a period of strong growth that began in the last quarter of 2005.

Related indicators for March
Total employment increased by 51,000 in March, causing the employment rate to reach a record high of 62.9 percent.

The unemployment rate declined 0.1 percentage points to 6.3 percent, a 32-year low.Housing starts rose 0.4 percent in March. Despite the rise in multiple urban starts (+18.6 percent) in March, single urban starts decreased for a second consecutive month (-8.9 percent).

Data on retail trade for March will be released on May 19. Wholesale sales declined in February after advancing strongly in the previous two months.

The broad-based declines caused total sales to fall 1.1 percent to $41.0 billion.

More Statistics Canada News... More Apparel/Garments News - Canada...