WASHINGTON — The U.S. Labor Department said apparel retailers increased staffing levels in February for the second month in a row, hiring 7,200 workers.
Department stores hired 6,200 to employ 1.48 million, while specialty stores expanded payrolls by 1,000 to 1.37 million. In January, apparel stores added 23,600 jobs.
The retail uptick was part of a Labor Department employment report issued Friday that was slightly better than expected.
“The trends in retail employment have improved consistent with trends in retail sales and the overall economy,” said Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer economics for Moody’s Economy.com.
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Month-to-month jobs data for retailers are difficult to interpret because of seasonal hiring trends, but the long-term trend for the sector “seems to be one of slow additions of jobs since roughly November,” Hoyt said. He cautioned some of the specific retail employment figures for the first few months of 2010 could be distorted because stores hired significantly smaller numbers of seasonal workers for the holidays and consequently had fewer layoffs when the season ended.
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In the broader economy, employers cut 36,000 jobs, fewer than analysts expected, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.7 percent. Analysts expected the severe winter weather in February to negatively impact employment figures.
Economists noted that temporary job figures rose sharply in February, the fifth straight monthly increase reported for the sector. Temporary jobs are considered a leading indicator of future job growth and could indicate that permanent hiring increases are on the horizon.
Hoyt said the reports “were suggestive of stability in the labor market, not hiring, but at least significant reduction in job losses.”
Christina Romer, chair of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, said, “Although the labor market remains severely distressed…the report on the employment situation is consistent with the pattern of stabilization and gradual labor market healing we have been seeing in recent months.”
The Senate is expected to vote affirmatively this week on a $15 billion jobs bill passed on Thursday in the House that would give tax breaks to business that hire new workers and invest in new equipment.
In the manufacturing sector, textile mills that produce apparel fabric added 2,300 jobs to employ 123,700. Textile product mills that make home furnishing fabric added 400 jobs to employ 122,200. Apparel manufacturers eliminated 700 jobs to employ 168,400.
“The February jobs report suggests that the economy is on the verge of creating jobs and that it will break through to sustained job creation beginning in March,” said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist for IHS Global Insight.
The positive word on jobs helped Wall Street end the week on an upswing as the S&P Retail Index added 1.2 percent, giving it a 3.2 percent gain in a week highlighted by strong same-store sales results for February. The retail index stands at 435.22, 5.9 percent ahead of its close at the end of 2009, as trading resumes today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average Friday picked up 1.2 percent to 10,566.20, 2.3 percent up for the week and 1.3 percent ahead for the year.