Retail trade added 43,000 jobs in December, following a loss of 29,000 jobs in November. In December, employment increased in clothing, clothing accessories, shoe and jewellery retailers (plus 23,000) and general merchandise retailers (plus 13,000).
Overall, employment in retail trade changed little last year, following an average monthly increase of 10,000 in 2023, a BLS release said.
After increasing earlier in the year, the unemployment rate has been either 4.1 per cent or 4.2 per cent for the past seven months. The number of unemployed people, at 6.9 million, also changed little in December.
Among the unemployed, the number of permanent job losers declined by 164,000 to 1.7 million in December, but is little different from a year earlier. The number of people on temporary layoff, at 862,000, changed little over the month and over the year.
In December, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) changed little at 1.6 million but is up by 278,000 from a year earlier. The long-term unemployed accounted for 22.4 per cent of all unemployed people in December.
The labour force participation rate, at 62.5 per cent, was unchanged over the month in December and has remained in a narrow range of 62.5 per cent to 62.7 per cent since December 2023. The employment-population ratio, at 60.0 per cent, changed little over the month and over the year.
The number of people employed part time for economic reasons, at 4.4 million, changed little in December and is little different from a year earlier. These individuals would have preferred full-time employment but were working part time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs.
Payroll employment rose by 2.2 million in 2024 (an average monthly gain of 186,000), less than the increase of 3 million in 2023 (an average monthly gain of 251,000).
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)